First Year
by Sage94
Summary: Heidi is a new student to Hogwarts. No, she is not eleven, but one of many homeschooled students who were forced to attend school under the corrupted Ministry. Year, 1997. In this story, I'm hoping to gain some perspective on Hogwarts in year 7. R
1. Chapter 1: Summer

**Decided it was high time I make a harry potter story, to distract my self from procrastinating my two other stories, which in turn was making me procrastinate from school. What a life. But I'm sure most of you are in similar situations. But if you have your shit together, then you can leave ;)**

Chapter 1: Summer

**Song of Choice: The arrival of the birds – the crimson wing (- YOUTUBE IT)**

**Let it commence!**

Today would be my first year at Hogwarts. I'm sixteen.

Just last week, the Rufus Scrimgeour had left office. "Stepped down", the paper said.

I used to be homeschooled, but my parents had told me it was necessary to attend school in order for the ministry to survey all of the children. My father had gotten the memo before it would be publicly announced in the _Daily Prophet_.

Want to know a secret? My parents told me why. They did not want me to go to school ignorant of the world. Times were changing. My father worked at the Ministry for Magic, and said there were loads of hush-hush going on inside. Said the whole staff had changed. The new Minister was always shut up in his room. Sinister-looking folk started showing up, filling positions of "missing" people. The secret was that the Ministry could not be trusted anymore.

It was late August; around the time my parents would be trying to get me into the habit of practicing new spells, and reading new potions books with me. But now I was packing. My mother would look at me, and when she thought I wasn't paying attention, I would see her eyes tear up. My father told me she was just scared for me. Not only would I not be under her supervision, but also she didn't know what kind of evils to expect at the school.

Today, we would be going to Diagon Alley, to purchase new school robes, since I already had the books for the year, as well as supplies.

My mum and dad side-along apparated with me, the squished feeling giving me a small headache, and made me clutch my stomach, as per usual.

"Hey mum, what's wrong with this picture?" I asked, sucking air through my nose carefully, too afraid to make movements.

The scene lain before us was terrible. Windows were covered with boards, and the once colourful street was bleeding with grief. I could see at most ten people hovering stores, rushed, and weary-eyed.

"Didn't your father tell you?" She asked me, turning her caring eyes to mine, "Much of the businesses were run down. Last year, a Death Eaters came through. Obviously they got what they were looking for…" She trailed off, her eyes focused on Mr. Ollivander's shop. I gasped. I got my first wand there. My hand shot to my sleeve, where I tucked my wand.

I could faintly hear music in the background, as we continued down the street. Down the left side of the street, a store with a man pulling a rabbit out of his hat on the sign caught my attention. The sign read, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

The rich purple was a sight for sore eyes, and I was immediately drawn to it. It was a bright contrast to its surroundings. My parents were already headed towards the robe tailor's so I'd have to ask if I could check this place out later.

I followed them, careful not to make too much eye contact with anyone, because really, this street was lined with sketchy people, however few they were. I remember the last time I was here, about two years ago, to get some new robes, and cauldrons, and a quick stop for some ice cream. It used to be bustling with people and hard for my shorter self to keep up with my parents.

We walked into Madam Malkin's and I tried on several standard black robes, all of them fitting quite nicely. I also had to buy a couple skirts for dress code sake. I don't think I'd even begin to like the idea of a dress code.

"Hey dad, can I go to the Weasley shop down the street?" I said nonchalant.

He himself was being fitted, and nodded, mainly focusing on my mom and the owner's opinion on his dress robes. I personally love taking advantage of parent's oblivious state.

"Have fun dear." My mum said, helping the fitter by sticking pins in here and there.

I walked down to the joke shop, smiling slightly.

I opened the door, and surprisingly, there were plenty of kids around. Some of them my age, but most were younger. Though it bothered me that no one else could be happy except children. Too much worry.

"I suppose these children need this at these trying times." I whispered to myself.

The store was so colourful, and full of life. Like the outside, it made the whole world pale in comparison.

I walked up to a shelf, and pulled paper bag, seeing candy. Figuring I was paying for them anyways, I was about to pop one in my mouth.

"I wouldn't recommend that." Came an amused voice.

Embarrassed at being caught, I whipped the green candy back in my small paper bag. "Why is that?" I asked.

"Did you even read the label?" He asked. I turned to face the man. He had bright orange hair, and a mischievous face, which I figured was his permanent expression. I looked down at the box, which held the green chewy candy.

"I—uh" I was flabbergasted, when I saw it read _Puking Pastilles_. "Is this for real?" I asked, and raised my eyebrow.

"Yes, and not for the faint of heart." He said. He pivoted suddenly, on his heel, and continued on his way. I looked back down at the box, and saw his face.

"Hey, wait, are you the owner?" I asked, very amused.

His head turned, and he grinned. "How did you guess? Was it my roguishly good looks?" he asked.

"Without a doubt." I said, comparing the moving label of his face to the actual person.

"Fred Weasley at your service." He said, holding his hand out expectantly.

I took it, and saw his fingers were tinted purple; no doubt he was tinkering, judging by the objects in the store. "Lovely to meet you, Mr. Weasley. Where is your accomplice?" I had noticed another face identical to his, on the box. I continued browsing the interesting shelves, every row holding something new. He seemed young, perhaps too young to own a business this extensive.

"George should be at the back. Can't hear a word I say though."

"Why is that?" I asked. Picking up a weird pink fluffy thing. It started bouncing off of me, and I immediately slammed it on the ground. I correctively put it back in it's bowl.

"Nothing…" Fred chuckled to himself, meaning it was an inside joke.

I continued on looking around (truth be told, I could spend forever in here), and Fred went on his way, greeting the occasional customer. I decided I would buy the candy, since I touched it, but unless I wanted to jip out of class, I would only nibble on one of these if necessary.

I looked outside, and the sky appeared bright and sunny through the charmed windows. I knew it was overcast and overall unpleasant. Standing behind the windows, were my parents, beckoning. I held up my hand, raising five fingers.

They nodded, giving consent for more time, and I walked around the store longer. I'd hate to take note to come back a.s.a.p. I picked up some extendable ears, and blue ink self-writing quills. It sounded like it would come in handy.

I noticed a whole section of the store of naked rack of coat hangers, and shelves, and floating tags. I reached out my hand, uncertain. I felt a smooth fabric under my fingers, and immediately, the fabric turned into a black leather jacket. I read the tag:

_Invisibility coat. Mixing leather fashion with your wizarding needs._

_Wash with cold water. Hang to dry._

_W&W co._

I had to laugh. These boys were very inventive. I decided to humour myself into buying it.

I went to the cash, and saw a familiar ginger.

"Hello Fred." I said, putting the candy next to the coat on the counter.

"The name's George, actually" He said, waving his wand over my purchases. I handed him the money. He smiled back up at me. Huh, twins.

"That's a pretty steep price for a coat no one'll ever see." I said, slightly perturbed.

"Oh, there's an instruction manual," George said, turning to the ledge on his right. I gasped. His entire left ear was missing. He pulled open a drawer, and handed me a small slip of paper.

I saw his eye twitch at my staring. I instantly looked away. "Sorry." I muttered.

"It's no problem, he's always been a little _Ear_-itated about the staring." Said his twin from beside me. I cringed at the bad joke. Fred patted me on the back, and I laughed nervously, still worried about the ear. Or lack thereof.

"Say, I never asked your name." Fred said, as he walked around to behind the counter beside (what I assumed, though all evidence pointed to) his brother.

"Oh, it's Heidi Brand." I said, again, shaking both their extended hands quickly.

"Say, we haven't seen you around here. Are you just visiting?" Fred asked.

"Because you sound local." George said, just as inquisitive as his brother. It was freaky.

"No, I'm from London. We have a place a couple blocks from the Ministry." I said, gathering my things in my arms.

"Great so maybe we'll—"George said.

"See you around…" Fred finished.

"Actually, maybe not. I'm starting school in a few." I said.

They seemed disappointed I wasn't of age, but Fred pressed, "Hold on. So would you be a _new _student to Hogwarts? I don't recognize your name, we used to go there."

"Yeah, no, I have to finish my last year at Hogwarts, it's the law apparently." I shrugged, making my annoyance clear.

"Oh, right, the _Ministry,_" George sounded as if he were recalling his own problems for a moment. His twin had a similar look.

"Anyways, I'm pretty much done shopping. But it was nice seeing you guys." I smiled, and continued to the door, as they waved to me, and continued their conversation.

**Please read and review. Because it would make my day. And I promise I will make it to Hogwarts next chapter, aswell as a character description... :) this was just some fun.**

**-Sage94**


	2. Chapter 2: Beginning

**Sorry, i had to replace this chapter, because in the last version i accidentally added a character who had graduated :p i know, i'm a terrible individual.**

Chapter 2: Beginning

A few weeks later, my mum had to drive me to Kings Cross. I saw several other people who were clearly not muggles walking through the entrance. It was a brick wall with Platform nine above it.

I had my trolley with all of my things packed in. I decided bring my cat to the school, since it was allowed. I asked my mom to send my Quidditch things by post a week into school.

"Heidi, I want you to write as often as you can." My mum said, bringing me into a tight hug. As much as I would hate uniforms, and waking up early for class, I would kind of like the freedom of a boarding school. Maybe I'd realize later what I would miss.

"I will mum." I said, letting her kiss my forehead.

"You know, I used to go to Hogwarts." She said, not looking at me, but at the entrance.

"Oh, cool. Was it alright?" I asked. I had some knowledge of the school, but I figured all this time that my parents were homeschooled as well.

She nodded. "I was in Ravenclaw, and your father, Hufflepuff." She said. "Your father wanted me to tell you to get into Hufflepuff, but I think he'll be proud no matter what house you step in." And with that, she gently pushed me away.

I walked through the barrier, and saw a red train, with words _Hogwarts Express _along the side. I looked along the train, and saw a fair amount of carriers. Behind, me, more students were trying to walk around me, when I tripped over someone's bag.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Came an unsure voice. I had been walking backwards, when I fell on my arse.

"Its okay," I said gruffly, and I looked up to an awkward boy, lanky and crooked teeth, and a cute round face.

He looked like he was in a rush anyways, so I waved away his helping hand, and he resumed his pace to the train.

I finally got all my stuff through the door, and dragged my luggage to a compartment. I found one with a few other girls, and decided to sit down, figuring this was as empty as it gets. I'm not antisocial, just very shy for the first time ever.

"Uh, can I sit with you?" I asked, self-consciously straightening my gray sweater.

"Yeah, no problem." A bubbly Indian girl helped me put my luggage above our heads. "You look about my year, what house are you in?" She asked.

"Oh, no, I have to attend school now. It's a new policy. My names Heidi," I added, as they nodded, and smiled. It didn't seem very genuine though. Padma patted the seat beside herself.

"Well, I'm Padma, and that's Mandy," She said, pointing to a girl with ashy brown hair. "That's Megan, and that's Pavarti." Padma pointed to two other pretty girls, one of them I guessed was her twin. Just a guess. "Anyways, Heidi, did you hear who's going to be the new headmaster?" She asked as I sat down on her right.

"Uh no, I didn't check… is there a problem?" I scratched my head.

"Well, not if you're a _Slytherin_." Mandy huffed.

"The old Slytherin head teacher is the new Headmaster, after Dumbledore had died." Padma said solemnly. I nodded, recalling hearing that earlier this year. My dad was quiet, and my mother had the jitters. I didn't know what to make of it, but it had been sad news for everyone around me.

"What's his name? Maybe I'll remember it." I said.

Mandy spoke up first, "His name is Snape, the greasy git: Black hair, allergic to showers, pale skin. I swear if I was as stupidly _noble_ as a Gryffindor, he'd have my head." She involuntarily shivered. I giggled.

"No, I don't reckon I've heard of him. Depends how old he is. My parents might know." I said, thinking hard of anyone literally looking like a greasy git.

"It probably doesn't matter anyways, since he'll be hard to miss at dinner." Pavarti said, speaking up. "And we're not stupid!" She said, not sounding the least bit offended to Mandy's comment.

I observed their playful banter for a bit. "So what houses _are _you all in?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm in Gryffindor," said Pavarti.

"I'm in Hufflepuff," Megan said softly. She seemed quite shy.

"Ravenclaw," Mandy and Padma said together.

"Well, I know there's houses and all, but… what's the difference?" I asked.

Mandy gave me a look that said 'are you stupid?' Pavarti explained, "Well, each house represents dominating traits. Gryffindor would be bravery, courage and chivalry. Hufflepuff, hard work tolerance and loyalty—"

Padma cut her off, "Ravenclaws value the intelligent, creative and witty students," She smirked. I had to shake my head at that, bemused.

Pavarti gave Padma a would-you-let-me-finish stare. "…And the Slytherins value—well I can't say Slytherins have any values. But they take the ambitious, cunning and those with leadership qualities." Pavarti explained.

I figured if I wanted to have a good time at this school, then perhaps I should stick to other houses. Apparently no one likes Slytherin.

We sat for a bit, them chatting about their lives, and every now and then asking about being homeschooled. Usually, they were sceptical if I was even smart enough, but I reassured them that I would be ready, taking little offence. I had to take a test week ago to get a grade placement.

A little later, a woman came by, offering us lunch, and treats, to which I declined. My mom had over prepared me, by packing several sandwiches and a soup, but everyone else bought something. I wish I had brought money, seeing as how I was the only one without.

The sky was darkening outside, and I was ready for a good nap. I rested my head against my chin and shut my eyes, when Padma stopped me moments later. "Heidi, we're about to arrive. You need to get changed!" She said.

I lolled my head back and forth in annoyance, and she giggled at my mannerism. I brought my suitcase down, and pulled out a skirt, white button-up shirt, a grey sweater and a black tie.

I saw the other girls walk towards the washroom down the hall. And I figured I might as well change in the compartment, since it looked like a long wait. Changing was uneventful, and I felt stuffy with the uniform, and the pleated skirt. It wasn't so bad with the robe covering it though. I'd deal.

Padma came back, looking proper, and comfortable in her clothing. I looked down at myself, and sneered.

"How long have we got left?" I asked.

"Not long. Just enough to make me want supper." Mandy said, patting her small stomach.

Soon enough, the train came to a smooth halt, not at all like the screeching breaks of muggle trains. However, there was the train whistle. We gathered our luggage, taking it outside, and bringing it to a platform. I just followed everyone's lead.

A half-giant, followed by two people, a blond tall lanky man and short and pudgy woman standing beside him.

I wasn't sure who the half-giant was, but trust me, I would know those two faces anywhere. They were Death Eaters. Their wanted posters used to be sent in the paper. That was the section I liked to look at in the _Prophet_, other than the obituaries: who the Ministry was looking for.

"First Year students, this way!" The half-giant yelled. His voice was booming, and pleasant. "That includes all you previously homeschooled, and transferring students!"

Several other students, who did not appear to be eleven, started walking after all the excited newbie's. I followed them, and spotted a boy my age, but did not want to strike up a conversation, since he appeared arrogant, and everywhere he looked, he glared in contempt.

I felt weird jumping into those tiny boats, which were evidently fitted to smaller students. I sat with only one other person, it being the bloke from earlier. Around the lake's bend, the boats pulled up into view of the castle. It was magnificent indeed, but it was certainly held in higher awe for someone who wanted to be here.

"Clive. Clive Thicknesse," the boy next to me said.

I nodded, the name sounding familiar. "My name's Heidi Brand." I said, shaking his hand. Our greetings were not the same happiness as earlier on the train, when I met Padma, but more of a respectful 'I might as well talk to you'. "Hey, Thicknesse, isn't that the name of—"

"The Minister, yes. He's my father." He said, grinning hollowly.

"Why wouldn't he send you to Hogwarts all along?" I asked.

"Because Hogwarts isn't worth my time. He only sent me here to heed his own words." He said. Clive seemed greatly disturbed by his father, the way he referred to him.

"Oh," was all I could say. I don't exactly have good advice, and he certainly wasn't the friendliest. We sat in silence the rest of the way, excusing ourselves anytime a limb went across the imaginary line that divided us, and our seating position.

Up above in my view, was the castle in all its glory. Or former. We got off our boats at the dock, and trekked up the stairs. No doubt there were thousands of stairs.

A woman with velvet green robes was waiting atop the last set of staircases, after I was beginning to wonder if I'd be able to take this much physical activity.

She waited for everyone to silence, her face weary. Her eyes, I'm sure, pierced everyone's eyes individually before speaking, "Good evening students, I am Professor McGonagall. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school." She fled to two great doors, while we waited. I assumed that that was the Great Hall.

"What house are you hoping for?" Clive said, leaning on the stone railing.

He seemed the Slytherin type, someone you wouldn't want to cross. "You, know, whatever comes to me. I have really no idea."

"You must have _some_ idea." He said, observing his clean fingernails.

"I d-dunno, maybe Ravenclaw…?" I stuttered. He narrowed his eyes a fraction of a centimeter, but he ultimately didn't know who I was.

"Hmm, I suppose we'll see then." As he finished, McGonagall re-entered our presence.

She said, "The school is ready for you now."

We filed through last, as the first years stumbled through the Great Hall doors. I could only guess how red their faces were. Then I suddenly realized we were the focal point. I stared at the legendary sorting hat in the middle.

Padma and Mandy held out their hands for me to clap, and I did, gaining odd looks. We approached the front all too soon. At the head table, were seated the teachers. In the centre sat the headmaster. And Mandy was right; he was indeed in dire need of a shower. He gazed over at us.

An average wooden stool sat in the gap between us and the teachers, for all to see. Sitting on it was a ratty old hat, limp. After a couple moments calm, it began to speak.

To be honest, I felt no need to listen. I would be learning about it anyways. I would zone in for a bit, only to hear it say words of wisdom, and history of the school. I was basically already briefed about the history, so I would zone back out. It finished, and I looked behind me to see lots of yawning among the students.

"Now when I call your name, the sorting hat will be placed upon your head, and it will announce your house." McGonagall said. I sighed; relieved we were cutting to the chase.

She sifted all too soon through the list of new students on her calling list. She appeared to be starting with the first years, since I should have been one of the firsts to be called. She steadily went up each year having two or three additions, until she reached seventh. Clive and I were the only two left.

"Heidi Brand!" McGonagall looked exhausted from yelling.

I sat on the stool, stonily, afraid to trip, but not letting my face betray. I could picture everyone seeing me from his or her perspective. A girl with dark hair, and interesting features, but incredibly reserved. Like I mentioned; I was shy at the moment. McGonagall placed the hat on my head slowly. It spoke to me, not loud enough for most people to hear.

_Ms. Brand, such a clever girl. You're very confident, friendly, reserved, and above all, loyal. You have much potential for any house._

"My parents could have told me that." I muttered.

_Slytherin is sounding better by the moment,_ It murmured.

"No!" I whispered quickly. "I mean, no, put me with those I would be best to get along with."

_You need competence and level heads, not a fan of gossip. Obviously not here for a good time, _it said rushed._ Ravenclaw's arrogance _bothers_ you?_

"Slightly."

_Well, you'll have a great time in…GRYFFINDOR!_

I was slightly irritated by how loud it yelled. I gazed over at the table to which the habitants would be my 'family' for the next school year. This should be interesting.

Most people clapped, but the Gryffindor table roared. I gazed over at Clive, and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Clive Thicknesse." She called. He smirked slightly, and waltzed up to the stool, and sat. For a little under a minute, Clive seemed to be arguing with the hat, in whispers. I sat down next to a first year that looked terrified of me.

"Alright then, Slytherin!" the hat yelled. I figured he would be placed in that house. Though I wondered if everyone took as long as he.

As he joined people more his age, he looked straight at me, and shrugged his shoulders.

As everyone acquainted themselves with one another, a snarky voice could be heard from the head table. "Let the feast commence." Snape, the headmaster had finally realized the rest of the place was hungry. _Good call, _Snape.

A feast that could feed all of Africa appeared on my plate, and I gulped. I would be eating like a king tonight. Hopefully i wouldn't have a hard time sleeping, what with all the food.

I gazed up at the head table, and to Snape. I remembered his name. My parents had mentioned names amongst those who were present in Dumbledore's death. And he was one of them. Despite having no connection with Dumbledore whatsoever, I wondered how a man like Snape (who screamed malevolent) got out of that murder mystery crime.

He must have caught me staring, and tilted his head in acknowledgment.

**La fin pour maintenant (that's it for now.)**

**Review, guys. Or else.**

**-Or Else What?**

**Or I'll… I got nothing.**

**-sincerely, Sage94**


	3. Chapter 3: Acquainted

Chapter 3: Acquainted

"There are a few start of term notices." Snape drawled, enjoying the suspense. "First and foremost, I have been appointed Headmaster." His eyes scanned the room, challenging the murmurs. "Second," he started again slowly, "the Forbidden Forest is just as the name suggests, forbidden." A few sniggers, but Snape continued, "And furthermore, curfew is an unyielding nine o'clock. And to all new, and to the forgetful… student gatherings unauthorized by myself shall be prohibited."

There was an audible angry buzz, coming mainly from the older end of the Gryffindor table. Perhaps this was a problem the previous year? Snape paused, his mouth parted, and his eyes skimmed our table. I caught him staring at a red-haired girl, who glared back.

He addressed a few other things, such as truancy (dealt with detention), and tardiness. He then proceeded to announce the new teachers.

"Please give our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Carrow a warm welcome. Also welcome the new Muggle Studies teacher, Professor Carrow." You could tell that even in his smugness, professor Snape felt awkward saying the two teachers' names twice. The two stood. They were obviously brother and sister, and I remembered them as the first year greeters, alongside the half-giant. The first addressed was the man, who looked sickly malicious. Him and his sister seemed to maintain that demeanour. The only applause gained was from the Slytherin table.

"Class will begin tomorrow morning at nine sharp." Snape said.

Soon after desert, our prefect stood, and made the first years stand to follow him. He had a pleasant Irish brogue. I shrugged, and followed the brown-haired boy. He also looked my year, and when he spoke, I was shocked. "This way, first years, and keep an eye on the way, the stairs like to change." I was a little weirded out, until I saw the grand staircase. It led up seemingly as far as the eye can see. And we had to walk. And walk. Luckily, we hadn't encountered moving stairs.

We reached the sixth floor, and we finally didn't have to walk those bloody stairs. A right, then another, and we were presented with a Portrait. A large woman, with a soft pink dress asked us, "Password?"

"Leo Rutilus." She nodded in respect, and opened for us.

Beyond the doorway, a rich red room was held.

"Welcome to the Gryffindor Common room. Girls dormitories up the stairs to your left, boys the same on your right." The boy looked like he was really eager for something. He was distracted from us, and kept checking his wristwatch. "You'll find all your luggage brought beside your quarters already." He quickly finished his speech, and hurried out of the portrait hole. I scratched my head, and looked around. It looked comfortable in here, and it was warm with the fire already going. Overall, well kempt.

While all the new children quickly scurried upstairs, I sat with a huff on a plush red couch. I relayed the information today. I couldn't really see why my parents were so wary to send me to school. Was it the staff? Because I always thought teachers were supposed to give you a hard time.

When the little squeaks of enjoyment from the younger kids died down, at around ten o'clock, I went to my bed, in the seventh years' room. I did find all of my things nicely laid out for me, with my suitcase at the foot of my bed. I only recognized it as my bed because of my initials. It struck me as odd though, that no one else was here for bed, and it was past curfew. There were five other beds, but it looked as if I were the only one to have come in. Now that I think about it, I didn't see much other than kids younger than me walk through the passageway.

Even the boys my age weren't seen. Was there some sort of start of term party? I pursed my lips, but tried not to think anything of it.

The circular room of beds were standard, with red curtains around everyone's beds. My bed was by a large window, and the night was a little bit cloudy, making the stars hardly visible. I changed into my pyjamas and jumped in bed.

Since I would have to take a placement test, I was not sure what classes I would have. I'd have to mail my mother in the morning to ask what sort of career paths I would have to take to become what I want. Which I wasn't sure of yet.

I closed my eyes, and fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, I lifted my head, and saw everyone in their beds. I grabbed my toiletry bag, and walked around to find a bathroom. When I did, I jumped in the shower, put on a little bit of makeup and got dressed back by my bed. Still, no one was up. I walked down the stairs to the main common room, and there were only the most nervous of first years, not wanting to be late at all. I looked at the time, and saw that it was seven in the morning. In reality I wouldn't be up this late, but I wanted to tour the school on my own.

I walked down all the sets of stairs, and finally for the first time felt excited for the school. No parents.

I sat down at the Gryffindor table, around the middle, and immediately a plate of delicious food had appeared before me. I was one of the only people my age at any of the tables, except maybe a few Ravenclaws. But they seemed like overachievers anyhow.

"Good morning Ms. Brand." I looked to my left and saw Professor McGonagall.

I broke my egg yolk and said, "Good morning professor."

She didn't bother with the 'How do you do this morning' and cut to the chase. "Your placement test will be held in the Headmaster's Office, at eleven. I urge you not to be late. His office is behind the gargoyle on the seventh floor." She said.

She left, floating to several other students who had just begun to arrive.

I ate my breakfast in mostly peace, until more and more Gryffindors came in. I looked up, and quickly realized they were sitting around me.

"Brand, right?" said the same red-haired girl from the previous evening.

"Yes, Heidi Brand." I said. I shook her extended hand, and she smiled. "I'm Ginny Weasley. We'd like to give you a more Gryffindor welcome." She grinned.

"Weasley…" I tested that name. I knew it. "You wouldn't happen to a know Fred and George?" I asked.

"Yeah, they're my brothers." She said.

"I saw they're—"

"Store, yeah." Ginny said for me. "So how are you liking Hogwarts?"

"It's actually alright." I said, biting into a piece of bacon. But it felt weird with them watching me eat.

"Great. So listen, we're having a little get together, let's say, to _welcome_ new members of the school tomorrow night, and we'd really appreciate it if you showed up."

I thought about it. "Can I get back to you on that?" I asked.

Ginny looked at her friends, one of them I recognized as Pavarti, and grimaced.

"I can keep a secret," I whispered, when they still looked concerned. It was because of the previous night, when I remembered Snape had banned student group meetings outside of his consent. I'm not a snitch.

Ginny lit up, and she continued talking. "So what classes are you taking this year, Heidi?" she asked.

"I'm actually not sure so far. After a placement test today, I must speak with the headmaster I suppose."

"Oh, cool. Do you plan on going out for Quidditch this year?" She asked.

"Yeah, I expect. But I'm not sure what you guys need though." I said.

"Well, we're out of a seeker this year, especially since most graduated. And I believe we're out of a beater. And we're in need of chasers. But try-outs start on Monday, next week." Ginny said.

Overall, I think they were just looking to recruit me for whatever they had planned. I didn't mind. Very soon, the whole Great Hall was filled with students. The head teachers were handing out timetables, and I felt slightly down, not knowing what I would be taking yet.

I would have to think of what I _would_ like to be. My father had talked to me about the need of non-corrupt employees in the Ministry. He said I could be an Auror, and said what with everything my mom had been teaching me I should theoretically be able to be what I want.

My mother was partial to me taking up Quidditch as a professional. But I wouldn't exactly know how good I was if I didn't compete this year in Quidditch. So I suppose I would have to join up the Gryffindor team.

Later, after I was finished eating, I went outside. Mostly to explore.

The school had an old charm, very medieval, and huge. Down the left side of the castle, I could see the Quidditch pitch from far away, and to the right, the gates of the castle, where I assumed everyone else came through, since I only saw the side of the school with the boat. I didn't want to explore much more outside, since it looked like it would take a long time to get down there, then back up. So instead, I sat in the courtyard, and summoned my muggle book of Sherlock Holmes to me.

"Accio," I muttered. Shortly after a minute, I came whizzing down from the sky.

_A Study In Scarlet_ had been a most interesting tale thus far, but occasionally I had to guess what certain things were. My muggle grandmother raised my mother, so she was the one who gave me this book. She also had to help me with the terminology. I mean, what is _baritsu_?

I occasionally loved his quick wit, and the way he picked up the small details, something I envied.

All thought of Mr. Holmes' mannerisms aside, I put down my book. I would have to leave that for later, because I was too nervous to concentrate on the book. The test was consuming me. If I didn't pass, I'd probably be put with a bunch of immature sixth years. Or even worse, fifth. Every so often, I'd have to tell myself to shut up, and trust that my mom taught me well.

Once the clock struck ten thirty, I walked up the stairs, until I reached the seventh floor. I'm not surprised I didn't see many overweight people here. They're always walking around. I put my hair in a high bun, and huffed up the final set of stairs. This bloody school. Giving me whiplash what with all its qualities. I'll settle whether I truly like it later.

Around a corridor, I could see the ugly face of the gargoyle McGonagall was talking about. It was pretty cool. I walked up and tilted my head at it. What was I supposed to do?

"Password?" It hissed. Oh, right. Well this would've helped to have one.

"Uh…" I said.

I heard footsteps coming from my left, opposite side from the stairs. Judging by the steps, a teacher.

"Ms. Brand. You are a little early aren't you?" He sneered. I nodded to Snape, and slightly smiled.

"I didn't want to miss it." And I for sure didn't want to get on his bad side first thing. Maybe further throughout the year, but not now.

He grimaced; obviously not the kiss-up type. He mumbled a password so I couldn't hear, and immediately the gargoyle span to reveal a staircase. I nodded, impressed, and followed the headmaster up the stairs.

There were a few more people behind the door. All were Slytherins, writing on their respective rolls of parchment. I recognized Clive, who had stuck his head up from above his desk to watch me. I half waved and followed Snape to his desk.

"The Slytherins are about finished, so I must ask you to wait a while before they are done, over there, just by the window.

I gazed over to the large window, which overlooked the grounds are more. It was magnificent. The more I looked, the more amazing this office seemed. It didn't have the Snape 'touch', so I assumed it still held the Dumbledore air about it.

I leaned against the frame of the view, and waited until, after several more Gryfindors arrived, and Snaped called us to him.

"You may begin your placement test. Any cheating will be met with punishment, and deductions." He said as he passed his test out.

I glanced at the papers, and was worrying my head off. Better now than never.

I sat down at my desk, and with the quill and parchment provided, began the test.

**THE end of this chapter my friends. I promise more social interaction in the following chapters…**


	4. Chapter 4: Meeting

**Please excuse any insensitive thoughts, as I'm not very experienced in this writing business. And please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm trying my best to keep this accurate. Meaning lots of time spent on the HP lexicon…**

**Enjoy**

Chapter 4: Meeting

"Just stop the test whenever you feel incompetent." Snape said, not looking up from his paperwork on his large mahogany desk.

I wrote the test, feeling confident after completing the first dozen pages. They were mostly review of the years. I had so far completed first to fourth years worth of review, and my fingers ached from holding the quill for so long. Not that I minded that much, but I was used to more kinaesthetic use of my time. All of these knowledge and understanding questions made my head spin after sitting here for a decent four hours.

After finally struggling by the sixth year, I came upon the last chapter of the test. Seventh year. The first questions were impossible. I could see bits and pieces where my mother and father would skim over the subjects, but not many questions where I could answer with sufficient knowledge. Obviously this was the breaking point. I set my test down, and gazed around the room. There were a few struggling sixth and fifth years. Evidently they were unprepared. The younger students had left long beforehand.

I stood, and set my test down in front of Snape's hooked nose. His head did not rise, and he shooed me away with his free hand.

"You'll have to select your classes." He said, handing me a slip of paper. "Here are the career paths, with the classes needed, indicated at the bottom." He handed me much larger paper.

"Actually, come by later, Ms. Brand, after supper to set up your timetable. Also, I'd like to have a word with you." He said. I wondered why. I hadn't done anything, had I? I shrugged, and left the room.

Immediately after leaving his extraordinary office, I went back to my common room to chill. I felt hungry, but not enough to walk all the way back downstairs. I could wait for supper.

I looked back down at my paper, as I lay down on the couch by the fire. Several careers jumped out at me: Wand maker, Curse Breaker, and an Auror.

How dangerous would it be to be a Curse Breaker or an Auror? Excitingly so.

I circled several classes that permitted those career paths, which were surprisingly similar, as well as the classes I wanted to take. The wand makers', however, was most difficult. It had few courses outlined, and yet seemed the most difficult out of the two. Charms, Defense Against The Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration, Arithmancy; Those were the courses I figured I would need the most. I wasn't sure which courses might come in handy with wandmaking but took Divination. Eight courses should suffice.

With my spare time, I went back up to my bed, and took a lengthy nap.

A while later, drifting in and out of sleep, I heard talking of students, and I figured class was over. Finally. I can't believe all of those students had school. I missed waking up later than eight. What on earth possessed me to wake up early this morning? It was a distant reason.

I saw several girls sitting by their beds in our room. I pulled on a gray sweater, and I walked down to the common room, and I saw many people sitting around, talking loudly. They seemed comfortable. This would take some getting used to. Not that I didn't interact with people at all back home, but living with _kids_ all the time? That was weak.

Ginny was sitting beside the prefect I saw from last night, and Pavarti, and the boy who knocked me over!

I sat beside her and spoke, "How were your classes today?"

Ginny jumped a little, and chuckled at her own alarm. "They were great. How long was your test, though?"

"Pretty long. Took me a good four hours." I said, putting my irritation into it.

"Oh, well that sucks. When will you find out your classes?"

"Tonight, I'm going to his office for a meeting," She hissed in air.

"That's rotten luck, my friend. Maybe he won't be rude to you like the rest of us." She said sympathetically.

"That's likely. There isn't a day in history where a Slytherin's been nice to a Gryffindor." The boy beside Ginny said. "I'm Seamus, by the way." He held out his hand for a fist-bump. I graciously accepted.

"I'm Neville. Neville Longbottom." Said the lankier of the two boys. "I'm so sorry for pushing you over." He said quickly, and urgently.

"It's okay, no bruises," I smiled, and he turned beet-red. We went back to talking about Snape, but I couldn't help thinking about Neville's parents. Their torture was all over the paper along time ago, and my parents talked about frequently, apparently friends to them.

Eventually, after much mutual agreement that Snape wasn't the nicest of fellows, we went to supper.

Just in front of the main entrance, by the Great Hall, we stopped, hearing a jeering voice.

"It is indeed a shame you had to be put in Gryffindor!" I heard a boy say.

All four of us turned, and saw Clive. I didn't recognize his gang beside him; two brutish-looking boys, along with an arrogant girl, and a tall lean boy with white-blond hair.

"Oh, hello Clive." I said, tenfold less confident than him.

"You _know_ him?" Ginny whispered furiously.

"We met briefly before the feast yesterday." I whispered back. Ginny, Neville and Seamus went back to glaring at the Slytherins. There was a big point I was missing. Sure Clive wasn't perfectly polite, but he wasn't as corrupt as his father, right?

"Already wasting your time with lesser wizards?" He asked. Their group approached, sizing me up.

"What?" I asked. They noticeably had some feud going on, for their glares held more than a common rivalry.

"All I'm saying is that the company you keep is less than favorable. He grimaced over to Neville and Seamus, with disdain. "And the Weasley girl, too?"

"I wouldn't be talking, Clive. You're father's a tool, and we all know it. So quit talking big. Just by looking at you, I can tell they're better wizards than you'll _ever_ be." I said lowly. He gave my shoulder a shove, and I pushed back harder. I surprised myself. I thought earlier I didn't want too much trouble, but here I was, _already_ defending my newly acquired friends.

I hoped secretly that my words were true, that I had bite to back up my bark.

He puffed his chest out comically, but sobered himself, and stormed past me to the Great Hall. The last person, the white haired boy, was the only to glare at me, the other boys nudging Neville and Seamus on the way in.

Though dinner was delicious, and the crowd was ecstatic to see their friends again, through the thick of rambunctious students, I could see Clive staring at me calmly. Not glaring, but it still unnerved me enough to pretend I didn't know he was looking. I bowed my head and ate my food in silence.

Seamus nudged my shoulder, and whispered, "don't worry Heidi. Slytherins aren't so tough. What you did back there was brave for a first year." He fist bumped me again, and got me smiling.

Ignoring Clive completely, we started talking about Quidditch.

"We absolutely need more drills for this year. The same things practiced, and the other houses are getting pretty used to our style. If we just switch it up, like the starting line-up, and cut faster, we could surprise them." Ginny said.

"I have some drills, if we really need them." I piped in.

"How? Weren't you homeschooled…" Ginny tried her best not to sound condescending.

"My Grandma is a coach for the Holyhead Harpies. I suppose she's taught me a lot." I said.

"Don't be modest!" Ginny said, excitedly. "Bring em out next week, and we'll try them, if they apply to us. Obviously we're not World cup material to try most of them just yet."

"So who do we have down so far?" Said another sixth year down the table.

Ginny pulled out a piece of folded up parchment, and gave it a read. "We got me, Willow, Jon, and Harley for my year, a couple fourth years who have talked to me about joining, Seamus, and McLaggen, for seventh years, and the rest is try-outs. And obviously you, Heidi." She added me in at the end.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the gloomy dark robed figure of Snape. He looked at me, and pointed his index up, 'to his office'.

I excused myself from Ginny, and she waved by, but quickly dove back into her conversation of Quidditch.

I followed Snape and his billowy robes up the stairs.

When we arrived, I was trying to hide the fact that I was panting, while he held his composure, and yet again muttered the password.

In his office, he quickly sat at his desk, and rounded on me, waving me to him, to the seat in front of his desk.

"Have you selected you classes?" He asked.

"Oh, right." I pulled the two papers, and put the one with the courses in front of his hands. He scanned the page, and checked it in the top corner.

"You shall receive your timetable tomorrow morning, with no conflicts in your schedule. But your schedule is not my main priority at the moment. My main concern is the immediate attention you drew from the older Gryffindors."

"Is there something wrong with being friendly?" I asked.

"Friends or none, I believe they will try to collect you in their little… group. If they have not already."

I was about to retort, but he caught me in a hesitation. "I want you to report to me any and everything that happens, when they do. And you will go to their meetings."

"Uh, do I have a choice?" I asked.

"No," Snape said it so quickly, I wasn't sure he had said anything at all. "Did I stutter?"

"No, but—"

"Good, because any refusal will be met with punishment."

Well that meeting was pointless. I had nothing to say, he spoke so quickly and with purpose. I glowered at him. He's really trying to _bully_ me into listening to him. Obviously there's more bad blood between Slytherin and Gryffindor that I thought.

I stood suddenly, my chair squeaking against the marble flooring.

"I should expect you back by the end of next week." He said. I still stood, glaring at him. "You're dismissed."

I huffed and stormed out of the room. Snape would be in for something more than his puppet.

**I hope you liked it. Please REVIEW this. Because I would like some feedback. Even if you just say hi.**

**-Sage94**


	5. Chapter 5: Passing Week

Chapter 5: Passing week

The following morning, Professor McGonagall greeted me at breakfast. My sleep last night was _most_ unfavourable. I hadn't gotten to bed until at least midnight. Which wasn't a good way to start the year off.

I had just sat down at the table, probably looking horrid, and she said, "Your timetable, Ms. Brand."

I grumbled an unintelligible phrase, even to myself, and took it. Her eyebrow cocked, and she walked away.

Everything was in order. Tomorrow, I would have double Potions in the morning, Defence Against the Dark Arts after lunch, and Arithmancy last. Thursday, I started off with a double Transfiguration block, lunch, Herbology, and History of Magic. Then on Friday, I would have Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, and Divination.

The Monday and Tuesday classes, I had History, Divination, Herbology, Charms, DADA, Arithmancy, Potions and Transfiguration. I slapped my forehead: so much transfiguration and potions. They weren't so bad, just time consuming.

This year wouldn't be too bad, if I was at home. But that was my conclusion to everything.

After breakfast, and greetings with my Gryffindor friends, I went on my way to Defence Against the Dark Arts, along with Neville. Up on the third floor, there weren't too many students heading my way. I walked into a cold class. There were no candles lit, and the blinds were down. I could faintly smell incense.

Suddenly, Professor Carrow, the male, stepped out from behind his office door. His sickly pale glow seemed to illuminate the class, as the room gained a greenish flush. It was his third day teaching a class, yet he seemed to already instil fear for everyone, except the Slytherins, who sat calmly at their desks.

"Class, take out your assignments from yesterday about the transformation stages of a vampire." He hissed.

Very quickly did everyone draw them out, but I stood in the doorway, unsure of what to do, or where to sit. I spotted Clive, sitting by himself.

"Ms. Brand, don't be shy, take a seat, next to Thicknesse." Carrow said tauntingly. He was also familiar with the houses' conflict.

"Hello, Clive." I said through my teeth.

"Good morning, love. Did you miss me?" He said smoothly.

"I'll only ever dream of seeing you every morning for the next year." I said, rolling my eyes. I sat down next to him, as close to the end of the bench as my arse would permit. I set my heavy books down on the desk in front to me, and pulled my hair into a bun. As I tried to concentrate on writing the date on the top right corner of my notebook, I could feel his stare.

"What?" I whispered, angrily.

He jumped slightly, at my sudden animosity. Though I don't know why it surprised him. "Meow." Clive teased.

I saw Professor Carrow approach our desk, so I chose not to retort. "Brand, Thicknesse, here are your missed assignments, the rest of the class had to write. Due tomorrow after class, no exceptions." He handed us loose-leaf papers with questions and which textbook page to draw information from on them.

Clive tucked it away, while I dated it.

"Wow, you're such a prep." He commented.

"It pays to be this organized by the end of the year exams…" I said.

"Point taken." Clive was weird. One moment he would be insulting, and the next corrective.

Soon, Professor Carrow began a lesson on the ways to avoid vampires, and leading causes of vampire deaths. I had a hard time focusing, when Clive would lean back into the desk behind him, making snide comments about the other students with the other Slytherins. I noted Neville looking back every now and then to see if I was all right.

"That your boyfriend?" Clive teased.

"Don't make fun of him, he's a nice boy." I said, embarrassed for Neville. I made sure to be quiet so Neville wouldn't hear.

"Ou, already picking up, eh Brand?" He asked.

"Shut up, Clive."

"He didn't seem your type. Tall awkward boys. You need something stronger."

"Oh, let me know when you find someone like that," I snipped. "And you have no say in what I need, _Clive_."

The boy behind me whistled. I turned my head. "And who are _you_?" I looked him up and down. He was the tall pale boy, with almost as pale hair, and dark circles under his handsome eyes.

"Draco Malfoy." He said, darkening.

"Oh, a _Malfoy_. Tell me, is daddy all better?" I asked in a cooing voice.

He instantly pulled my chair into his body leaning over his desk and whispered in my ear, "Don't you dare."

"I'm shaking." I quipped. He shoved my chair back to normal, and we carried on with class. The Professor seemed oblivious, but I knew he saw the exchange, but favoured in ignoring such a situation. When class was over, Professor Carrow had assigned ways to kill a vampire. Wasn't there just a law passed to not bother them? It's not like the Ministry said they couldn't drink blood, they just couldn't kill. As if they're teaching this in schools.

I got up, and hurried out the class to get to second period. I looked down at my schedule, as I came to the grand staircase. Arithmancy was higher up. I would be dreading walking for the rest of the year.

I felt a hand touch the middle of my back, and pull me. Clive was sneaky. "Class is this way, sweetheart." He said, pulling me the other direction.

"I'm sure you'd like me to believe that." I said, unwinding myself from his grip.

I continued up the stairs. He followed behind me. "What's your next class?" He asked.

"Arithmancy." I muttered.

"Great, that's where I'm headed as well!"

Just one more year I kept telling myself.

After school was finished, I put my books away upstairs, and shut my eyes for a moment. Appearing tough was more exhausting than I realized. And learning at the same time?

I decided to start on my Arithmancy homework, since it was just lessons on how to open cursed tombs as safely as possible. Just simple Q and A.

Later, I went down to the Great Hall for a good meal.

A girl, that I did not recognize was sitting next to Ginny, looking spacey in comparison, even more so than my Divination teacher.

"Oh hello." She said, looking at me. I noticed her radish earrings.

"Uh, hi. Who are you?" I asked, trying to sound polite and stared at her eyes, not her appearance. Not that there was anything with her physical appearance. In fact she was quite pretty. She just had _very_ eccentric clothing.

"I am Luna Lovegood. You are the new student, right?" She said in her airy voice.

"Yes…"

"I sense you are very troubled. Nargles are practically in the air you breath!"

"…Right." I said. I looked at Ginny, and she shook her head.

"So what time is the meeting tonight, Ginny?" I asked,

Her eyes said quiet down. "Shh, we don't want everybody knowing. It's tonight at eight. And bring your wand."

I nodded seriously.

I went back to the common room, and was asked to wait in the main lobby, until somebody came to get me.

"I'm really sorry, Heidi, but it's only because you're new." I heard Seamus' Irish voice, and he slipped a blindfold gently over my eyes. I couldn't really tell you where he took me; all I know was that it was up, down, left and right, before we stood still for a while. Then, he opened a door, and I heard laughing voices, of welcome.

I slipped the blindfold off, and saw about thirty kids standing in the room.

"Welcome Heidi!" Ginny said, enthusiastically.

There were pieces of furniture scattered around the room, mirrors lining the walls.

"So uh, why is this so secret again?" I asked.

"We can't really tell you anything until you join. But we just wanted you to show up and meet everybody, to get acquainted. Before you sign up, we have to let you know."

"Know what?"

"Well. Obviously, maybe not to you, but the staff has changed. Times have changed. We're the only hope our school has got if we don't want to surrender to You-Know-Who."

"Oh, it's one of _those_ groups." I murmured to myself.

"Well now she _has _to sign up. She knows what we are." A boy said at the back. I shrugged in accordance.

"We could always obliviate her if she doesn't join, you nitwit." Said another boy.

"Whoa, whoa, there will be no need for that. I'm in. To whatever it is you guys are doing. Just leave my mind in its proper state." I said, putting my hands up in defence. Everyone gained a relieved look.

"Good." Ginny said. She magically summoned a list to her hands. On it, I could see names of kids, hers at the top. "We just need you to sign this, then we can get down to business."

I signed it, and we sat as a group, and recapped what happened over the summer. Some people talked about the new Minister, others about Harry Potter. And how he's undesirable number one at the moment. I didn't like to talk about Harry, because it kind of disappointed me that our fate was in the hands of a boy my age. Heck, I was just going through the motions of school.

Suddenly, I started actually listening to Ginny, and her summer.

"…My brother got married, and then Death Eaters came bursting in. After that, we haven't seen Harry since."

"Wait, wait, wait. _Why_ was Harry at your house?" I asked.

"Oh, he's a family friend. He left with Hermione on a mission from Dumbledore. Before he turned seventeen, members of the Order had gone to help him before You-Know-Who could get at him." Then she went into further detail on how it was a gruesome battle over England skies. Her brother, George had lost an ear over that battle. And the renowned auror, Mad-Eye Moody had fallen to a killing curse. I gasped at that. His death had never met the papers, or my parents' ears. She described how there had been seven Harry's to chase, and Voldemort had flown without a broom, chasing every last one of them.

I felt my eyes prickle, and my heart clench. Wizards and witches everywhere were left so far in the dark. I felt privileged to know all these people knew Harry Potter.

I rolled my wand in between my hands nervously, and tucked it back into my sleeve.

"I'm not sure when we'll next be able to meet, as security's been stepped up a bit," Ginny said, "but let's keep our hopes up for another meeting before the month is out. I'll tell the next location via your galleons." She said. As everyone left in pairs, I watched as the room dispersed. How long had this group been going on?

"For three years, the DA has kept resilience against You-Know-Who. We hope to keep our group strong, and we _don't _need snitchers." Ginny said, warning. She took me with her, back to the common room.

While everyone was asleep, I slipped my robe back on, and found my way to the owlery. It was a tall building, making the night more than chilly enough.

I had previously written a letter, explaining to mom how classes were, and what my career paths were. I told her to write me back a.s.a.p to tell me how the family was doing. God knows I need some cheering up. I made it back to the dorm without incident.

The following Monday, after an uneventful weekend, at breakfast, I received a letter back. Next to my family's wax crest, I could see tears staining the yellowish envelope. I quickly ripped it open.

_Dear Heidi,_

_Do not fret. Ministry officials have apprehended your grandmother._

_She had been in hiding. I'm sorry I never told you she was a muggleborn, I just did not_

_Want you to worry. Your father is doing his very best to make sure she is in the very_

_Best care, but we're not sure how safe she is guaranteed. _

_Don't do anything stupid,_

_-Love, your mother_

_Helena Brand_

My forehead creased. All I could picture was my mother crying. What did the ministry have against muggles nowadays? They've been around for as long as anyone can remember and only now the Ministry needs to see them.

That evening, I angrily strapped on equipment in the girls Gryffindor Quidditch dressing room. Around lunch her broom had been sent in the post, but that did not brighten her spirits in the slightest. But after I blew out some hot steam, I walked onto the pitch with my broom.

**Love your dearest author, sage94.**

**I urge you all to review. Maybe with characters you'd like conversations with!**


	6. Chapter 6: Quidditch

**Sorry for the delay. It's been such an inconvenient couple of weeks. I had hockey every night, and tons of studying going down. But no one cares, so just enjoy.**

Chapter 6: Quidditch

As I stepped on, I realized this pitch was pretty small. Well of course it would be. I'd only been to matches at the pro-league pitches. I tested my broom, though I knew it would support me, and kicked off the ground.

I had long gotten used to the breeze in my face, and had stopped tearing up. After a five-minute spin around the stands, Ginny was standing in the middle out the pitch, and blew her whistle for everyone to join her. All of the kids rounded up, and I stood a good head above them. A lot of them were third years, and a couple first years. You could tell who was already on the team, for they were standing with confidence. I didn't like it. Not that I wanted to put them in their place, I just wanted to humble them. The third years had as good of a chance as the seniors did.

"And which spot are you trying out for, sweetheart?" a, what should have been charming, voice said.

I sized him up. I think he was called McLaggen. "I dunno, maybe a chaser. I kind of like Keeper." I said, shrugging his arm off my shoulder.

He laughed, and I turned away, focusing on Ginny, preferring not to hold a conversation with him.

"I'd like to thank you all beforehand for showing up for the first practice of the year. Now there are a number of you, so I will be making cuts. Do not take this personally, and please, I encourage you all to try again next year. There are seventh years who will need replacing." She said, trying her best to sound sympathetic. I saw her eyes flicker to the scrawniest of the bunch, mainly the second years. I couldn't blame her.

She first ran some drills for flying to the other end and back, and there was a few stragglers, but overall a strong bunch. Next she had us off our brooms passing the quaffle back and forth, then timed us, then had us on our brooms.

While she sent them off to run a lap around the pitch, she called me back to her.

"Heidi, what should I do next?" She whispered, somewhat nervous, as we ran at the end of the line.

"I dunno, its just try outs. Do some more passing plays." I said.

"Can you take some players aside, and run some beater drills."

"It's not my best position…"

"Thanks, you're a gem." She said, and sped up to the front of the pack, before I could argue.

After the jog was finished, I guided the five players who actually wanted to play beater. I spotted Seamus who was at the back, not really paying attention. I first told them how to hold the bat, and just a mini lesson, and about how physically demanding the one was out of all the positions, build-wise. Warning them that unless you were tall, you'd better be strong.

A few kids got discouraged when I brought out the two bludgers that were held inside their respective places in a box. These bludgers were pretty feisty ones, so everyone would be in for a surprise.

I had them first hit a couple shot-put balls first after they took a beater's bat from a pile, before the actual bludgers, so they could get a feel for the weight of it.

"Now, just picture it moving quickly. Don't expect it to take it easy, when it's hurtling towards you." I said.

When they were rubbing their forearms in discomfort, while listening, I readied to open the box, and unclasp the bludgers' restraints. They kicked up off the grounds, and flew to the opposite end of the field and waited. I charmed the bludgers to fly in their general directions. I hoped that they would at least get out of the way from the bludger's path if they didn't bat it away.

"All right guys, on three." They leaned on their brooms, with the bat in hand. "One. Two. Three." I quickly unclasped them, and three were sent zooming at the students. The first boy, who looked somewhat decent, struggled to tap it, and wavered on his broom, almost passing inspection. The second boy, who was slightly big for a young one sent it back to me decently. Seamus was good, but altogether too cocky for me. He'd only be picked because the next people who I sent the bludgers at were embarrassingly bad.

I sent them back to the rest of the group, who had begun to do more dry-land training. Currently doing push-ups.

Ginny came by me while I started to do my share of push-ups, "How're the beaters looking?"

"Well," I huffed, feeling a little bit out of shape since the summer, "You've definitely got your team cut out for you."

She nodded grimly, and continued with the practice.

By the end of the session, Ginny had everybody rounded up again. "Again, thanks to all who showed up. The results for the first cut will be posted on the house bulletin board in the common room by tomorrow morning. Next try out will be Wednesday at six."

While we had finished showering in the dressing room, I asked Ginny more about the team, "So who do reckon you're going to cut?" not that it wasn't obvious, I was just curious.

"Well, I'm just cutting the people who are wasting time, and keeping the ones with potential." She said.

"Well, I was wondering if I could… you know, have more of a try-out myself." I asked nervously.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. I've been so worried about everybody else; I'd forgotten where I would need you!" Ginny gained an apologetic face.

"Yeah, well, maybe after Wednesday, you'll know." I quite possibly could've messed up her positions chosen for everyone. Which wasn't exactly my fault.

We parted ways, while I headed to the library to finish my Arithmancy assignment in favour of walking all the way upstairs to the common room. I sat down at a table, mostly out of view, and started writing. And writing.

I finally put my pen down, when I realized the library was basically empty except for the librarian and me. When I gathered my stuff up, she gave me a stern look, "off to bed now," She said, stacking more piles of books, as well as charming them back onto the shelves.

As I opened the doors to leave, I ran into a certain boy with white blond hair, who looked like he was lurking around suspiciously.

"Hello…" I said, friendly, prying.

"Hi," he said, rushed.

"I don't believe we met," I said, extending my hand, while he looked around, probably for a teacher or something.

"We haven't." He agreed, still not looking directly at me. He shook my hand.

"My name's Heidi," I said, maybe a little too proudly.

"Hello, Heidi. Nice meeting you, but as you may have guessed I'm a little busy… Hold on," He said, taking a look at my face. "_You're_ Heidi?" He asked, somewhat surprised. "You're the one Clive's preoccupied with."

"_Preoccupied_?" I asked. That seemed like a weird word to use.

"Yes, now it was nice meeting you," He hurried around the corner. But before I could turn back, he was bolting it back my way.

"Not so fast, Malfoy." Said an authoritative voice from around the corner. I wondered if I should have moved, but the teacher had already rounded the corner as well. "Well, well, Mr. Malfoy caught outside in the corridors well past bed-time." The woman said tauntingly.

It was Professor Carrow. I slowly tried to tiptoe past her, but she snapped her fingers at me, "You, Gryffindor, don't you find it odd that you're associating yourself with a Malfoy?" She said sarcastically. Malfoy… where have I heard _Malfoy?_

I knew I shouldn't have said yes, nor in the tone I did, and she whipped her head to look at me. Her eyes were livid, and appalled I would respond at all.

"I wouldn't think a Malfoy would even bother going against the _His_ wishes." Suddenly knew who this was. This was the Malfoy kid, the Death Eater Lucius Malfoy's child. His name, though only mentioned in the papers scared me to a pallid colour. I had to get away. I spun on the spot, and sped away as the professor cackled at my quick escape.

The following morning, at breakfast, Ginny noticed my reserved behaviour, for which I was thankful.

"Heidi, what's gotten into you?" She asked politely, and more as a whisper so as not to catch more attention.

"Well, you know how after practice, I went to the library?" Ginny nodded back to me, and followed my gaze across the room. "When I finished my essay, I left and ran into Malfoy. Then professor Carrow came along and I peaced." I said. When I finished my story, I hope she understood how scared I felt being in the presence of two fearful figures.

She noted that I was looking across the room at Malfoy, who was talking with Clive. Which made me somewhat wonder if what Malfoy had said was true. Was Clive really obsessing over me? That seemed to weird to contemplate. He probably exaggerated a tad, but no doubt I had been worrying about Clive (not him, his attitude) when I first met him.

We sat for more than a few moments watching them, when Clive nudged Malfoy to tell him we were staring. Ginny and I immediately sat up straighter, not realizing how hunched we were, and pretended to seem occupied. Yet for the life of me, I couldn't find anything to look busy, other than a piece of toast. Embarrassing to say the least.

When I looked back up, Clive had his eyebrow raised at me so that was invisible under his hair.

**Sorry this is kinda shorter than my usual 2000 words. But I needed to cut it off somewhere.**

**-sage94**


	7. Chapter 7: Unearth

**Oh gawd, if any of you could please excuse my absence. My only excuse could be that I had lots of homework, lots of hockey, and lots of being sick. :P**

**Oh, and it was my birthday! :D**

Chapter 7: Unearth

As soon as I dropped his stare, the whistling of the owls rang through the great hall. Although I hadn't been expecting it, I received a letter. Finally, especially after I'd been wondering how my family was doing. My mom's greyish-yellow, fat owl came spluttering through the window, stopping just short of me, and untucked the letter from behind it's leg.

"Oh, hello, Fauna. What did mum send today?" I asked, stroking the back of his spine. He rubbed his head into my hand in appreciation, and after I took the letter, and he lifted himself away back out the windows.

I opened the letter, and was shocked by the errant writing by my mom.

_Your grandma escaped the ministry,_

_Our house is under search._

_Again, don't do anything stupid._

_-Helena_

Her name's last letter was trailed out, clearly indicated how rushed this was. I felt my face pale. I'm not sure how this would affect me. I know the muggleborns here weren't allowed to attend school, under some lame pretence that they stole magic, as well as every other muggleborn within the Ministry's reach. And I know the muggleborns were ridiculed, by the way my dad would speak at the dinner table.

But I gave a little fist pump when I found out my grandma escaped. She's really tough, but she's still old, so I hoped she would somewhere safe. Frequently I would see Ginny look over and question my happy face with her eyes. I would just shake my head, she wouldn't understand.

That Wednesday, to be exact, I walked to the common room to drop off my books and headed down to the Quidditch pitch, very much pleased with myself. I walked onto the field with my broom prepared for anything.

Since all of the positions were filled pretty much, by Ginny's discretion, she told me to chase the snitch around. Trust me, I'm not that great at this. I just happened to be better than the team, and the only one brave enough to go for it. This is ridiculous.

After practice, there were plenty of congratulations. I'm not sure how it happened, though. I sort of agreed to play as a seeker. The Gryffindor seeker. This seemed impossible. It seemed the one with the most pressure. My grandma was lucky enough to attend a game that went on for two nights because the snitch was inescapable, but god forbid it happening to me.

That Friday, Mr. Filch to asked me go up to Headmaster Snape's office. Snape was probably assuming I put it out of my mind. Not that I'd forgotten. His meeting with me from last time was etched in my mind.

"Please, sit," He told me, the moment I turned the handle. His voice was lazy, and didn't sound at all like he wanted me in his presence.

I sat, and folded my hands on my lap, and again surveyed the large magnificent office. Though this time it was different; it held a Snape-ish touch even though I barely knew the man. There were vials of black ingredients, and books piled high, and letters scattered everywhere.

"How has school been, miss Brand?" he asked, not setting the quill he was writing with down.

"Pleasant." I responded shortly, only waiting for him to ask me what he really wanted to know.

Five minutes later when he had finished writing whatever he was writing, he summoned a cup of tea, and he ordered me to drink, which struck me as odd.

"How was the meeting?"

"Uneventful," I said, but then I took a drink. I soon could tell the signs of Veritaserum being put into my drink, since while he was talking to me words were slipping out like I'd had too much alcohol.

I had told him only what was said, which was for the most part said by Ginny. Snape now knew everything that had happened in the room. I wasn't sure what he would do with it, but it didn't sound good, especially since the information had much to do with Harry Potter, and there were Death Eaters living in the castle.

Snape dismissed me, nodding, as if he knew it already. Not much people could have known as much detail as Ginny especially since my parents, who were pretty good supporters of Harry and Dumbledore hadn't heard a scratch of information about them since Dumbledore's death.

The headmaster gave me loads to think about other than his odd ways, because obviously he wanted to know so much.

"Oh, and speak to me immediately after you know when the next meeting is…" Snape added, and trailed off as I shut the door behind me.

After many trying projects, essays, assignments, potions, and cramped hands later, I managed to survive the month of September. November would seem disastrous especially since I was _already_ having difficulty with the first month, which was supposed to be the easiest, according to my teachers. But of course I could deal with it.

On a regular Thursday night, after a particularly difficult game against Ravenclaw, Ginny whispered to me, "There's a DA meeting tonight, I'll bring you. The location has changed." Not that I had known in where the first location was in the first place…

I am excited to say that we have been having a great season up to date. The first game was iffy, since I just missed the snitch, and Ravenclaw got it instead. But we were saved by the fact that my team had more points whether Ravenclaw caught the snitch or not.

Anyways, enough about my Quidditch life. The DA meeting tonight seems to be about the poor treatment from teachers.

With all my homework, I'd never really noticed Neville's, Seamus's, Ginny's and Luna's faces. They were down right brutal. As if I thought it was from Quidditch. It was from detention.

"Professor Carrow gave me this nice shiner on my jaw," Seamus said, prodding the bruise.

"Are they allowed to do that?" I asked. I leaned forward to inspect the damage. Snape had to do something about this.

"It's actually not been bad this past week. Maybe all the Death Eaters are pre-occupied with finding Harry." Ginny said, not touching her hurt face, but rather was staring out the window. She was scared for Harry. I'd be worried too; in fact I already am for my grandmother.

"Now everyone, the proposal I have for everyone is one that is… difficult." Ginny said, walking around the room.

Everyone leaned in a little closer to hear what she had to say.

The next Monday before supper, professor Snape called a meeting, one that was most exciting.

"Hogwarts will be expecting visitors by November the sixth. These visitors will be here to give seminars on their career choice and the paths it takes to get there. Years three to seven will be given the opportunity to sign up for these seminars on the lists posted outside the Great Hall doors." He finished by sitting back down, his ridiculous robe billowing as he did.

Immediately we were all wrapped in what careers they would bring here. Pavarti and I left the dining room to go do our Potions lab on the dangers of Alihotsy.

"Which do you reckon you'll take?" I asked her the moment we opened the doors, while noting that Malfoy was already standing in front of the sign up sheets beside Clive, gazing over at us just as inconspicuously as I was to him.

"I dunno, but let's sign up before all the good careers are filled up."

"Er, I'll sign up tomorrow…" I cringed back as she pulled me towards the wall opposite to the Great Hall where numerous students were starting to crowd. Pavarti looked at the wall and then back at me.

"You can't be scared of them forever. You're going to graduate anyways." She said. I still shook my head but followed her.

Walking by them was relatively painless. Other than the comment that Clive made as I was walking away. I _was_ going to choose to ignore it, but something about the way he said it.

"I hear you gran is on the run now. It won't be long until they come to get the rest of you mudbloods. It's a shame really," He said, just loud enough for the whole student body outside the doors hushed. Pavarti was whispering to me to let it go, and pulling me back in the direction of the Grand Staircase, but that made me want to stay more now.

The other students seemed to clear a path from me to him, as if expecting me to retaliate. I closed my eyes for a second before realizing, yes, hexing him would be worth it.

I waved my wand, and he flew back a good seven feet, into a poor Hufflepuff's body. He got up, and fixed his hair, and drew his own wand, pointing it at my head, but something behind me made him smirk, and put his wand away slowly.

A firm hand was placed on my shoulder, and I set my jaw, not willing to believe that I knew what I was in for.

"_Twenty_ points from Gryffindor. My office, Brand." Snape hissed slowly, making every Slytherin present cackle with laughter. I rolled my eyes, and followed him upstairs.

"I cannot believe you would attack another student." He said sardonically.

"What would you do? He insulted me!" I said, outraged.

"I'll choose to excuse your little hormonal attitude. Were you so caught up in the moment, your little Gryffindor head forgot he was the Minister's _son_?"

"No…" I murmured.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"No!" I said louder. I crossed my arms defiantly, even though I knew it must've looked childish. This was no way to get this man to respect me.

"Then keep you quick temper under control. After all is said and done, you've just earned yourself two weeks detention as per customary, and seeing as it is illegal to send you home. Now onto more pressing matters."

"Such as?" I said.

"You mean to tell that after almost a month there's been no meeting?" He asked, again in that awful drawl of a voice.

In my moment's hesitation, he narrowed his eyes. "If this system is seriously going to work, then I need co-operation. I will certainly not have a silly little girl disobeying my orders."

"Well then why don't you go in by yourself? Wouldn't that be easier?" I yelled. I sucked in air as I waited for his explosion. "And is this about Harry Potter? Why does he matter _so much_ to you? You're just the headmaster."

His smooth way of usually speaking had cracked a second after he stuttered the word "Because." I can only imagine why he would have such dislike for him. Sure his motives could be for the prevalence of the Dark Lord, but to get him to admit it would ruin their entire façade. My father had talked about how the Dark Lord was smart to keep his rising in the shadows, undermining the Ministry.

"Back to your common room, insolent child. My reasons are my own." He said, his voice wavering towards the end. I narrowed my eyes to his eyes, which held equal dislike. I sort of respected that he would keep his secrecy.

**Please review. don't hate me for being late D:**


	8. Chapter 8: Arrival

**This may be news to some of you… even if most of you don't listen to them, but Paramore's Josh and Zac Farro have left the band :(**

**Merry Christmas…**

Chapter 8: Arrival

Early in the morning I woke up to sign up for the careers. I didn't think there was a limit, so I added my name to the curse breaker and the Quidditch sheets, as well as that of the Aurors'. I nodded surely to myself, and went for a walk outside.

What with all of my studying and tests that occurred every other class—it seemed—I had never taken the time to truly admire my school. I sat in the clock tower courtyard outside the school and waited until I knew breakfast started, which was around seven thirty.

I wasn't really surprised to see Luna Lovegood waltzing around here too, judging by her personality.

"Hello," Luna twirled, and continued, "It's quite foggy out."

"Yes, yes it is…" I said, but I wasn't all that taken aback because it was Luna, and she did things like this. She especially came by when I was having trouble in the library, and her nonsensical ways would therefore force me to think harder about my work. So I didn't think she was a burden at all, but rather helpful. Most people would call her nuts. "Luna, I'm having trouble."

"You look it," She twirled about me some more.

"You see, there's this man—boy, I mean. And I'm not sure what his problem is. He seems to be a very nosy boy, and I'd really like to get to the bottom of his motives." I tried to keep my problem with Snape anonymous.

"Don't mind Snape," Luna said. I nodded, trying not to feel like I've just been foiled. Luna is brighter than she appears.

"But how did you know it was Snape?"

"He's the only teacher I catch you staring at. And he does take a particular interest in wanting to talk to you."

I thought about it. Luna does know quite a lot about people. But would it be worth it being kicked out of the DA? I have quite a bit of fun gossiping about the Order, catching up with people whom I would otherwise be unable to, due to a hectic schedule.

"He's just really prying… in my _home_ life," I said. She didn't need to know if he was asking about the DA, whether we were friends or not. I couldn't be sure she would have my back if she only knew me for a month and a bit.

"Well I hope all is resolved for you, Heidi. Professor Snape is a very reasonable teacher from my years of experience, and I do not think he would bode you any ill will." She started to sing a weird melody and continued down to the lake.

I nodded to myself, determined as ever to find out about Professor Snape.

Later, around midday, when a select few of the DA members in Gryffindor, which included me, were out of class, we brought supplies from the top floor, through a portrait passage way to the outside of the Great Hall.

Ginny, Neville, Seamus, Pavarti and I stood by the doors, and set down the boxes, and walked back into the Great Hall for lunch. I wasn't sure when the box had exploded, nor what it did, but judging by the smug expression on Ginny's face, it was going to be great.

"Any moment," Ginny said, and I saw her freckled fingers cross.

There was a dull poof, and a white smoke or dust leaking under the doors, and plenty of curious looks going around. Ginny's smug face changed to feigned curiosity as well. The teachers stood from their seats at the head table, but McGonagall was the only to actually walk steadily down the hall. She was careful not to look where we were seated. Everyone stared as her footfalls echoed across the large room. And she slowly started to gain momentum as she pushed the grand doors open. Her velvet green robes were puffed with white.

I looked at Ginny, giving her an incredulous look. Was this the trick?

"Just wait," Ginny said, still looking out the doors.

Despite McGonagall's discoloured robes, she continued on, and looked outside. I saw the slightest of grins on her face, and she returned to her seat with a just as equally long return. When she sat, students started to steadily rise from their seats, and walk out the doors. We rose last and saw a masterpiece. Written all over the walls were slogans to support all those against the Dark Lord in a stark white, right up to the ceiling. The largest, was across the front of the Great Hall, and I had to turn to see it. It said, "LONG LIVE HARRY POTTER" and I laughed. Ginny had her priorities set, that's for sure.

My neck was still craned, but the laughter and talking ceased as someone walking towards the doors silenced them. I looked down and Snape had a look. His face grimaced as he caught wind of the messages written on the wall.

He waved his wand against Harry's message, and a splash of water hit it, but the message stayed. He waved it again, and a flash of pale blue hit it, yet still it remained. While everyone else was starting to murmur and wonder if he was ever going to get it off, he continued his assault on the one message, waving his wand like a mad man. A couple of people sniggered, along with myself, but he only looked glaring at me, and assessed whom I was standing with.

My laughter ceased and my expression turned serious.

"This is your second offence, Ms. Brand. I would urge you to watch your step, for I may not be as compassionate the next time." Snape walked away, his long cape trailing out behind him. I heard him mutter to a sputtering Mr. Filch to clean it up.

"So how _does _it come off?" I whispered to Ginny, who had moved up beside me to also glare at the back of the headmaster's greasy head.

"I believe one would have to scrub _really_ hard for this to come off the walls. It's magically irreversible. Completely harmless of course, but still effective." She said.

Over the intercom, one could hear the headmaster's voice, "Classes will resume tomorrow, after the offenders have been apprehended and punished."

We all had a good laugh, happy not to continue with our classes.

The following Monday, it was the sixth. Everyone had been excused from class that week so that we could have thorough thought put into the careers. I noticed that I wasn't the only one who had woken up early that Monday. I was excited, though I tried not to notice my aching muscles from being made to clean every surface that held the resistance messages from the past Friday. Me, along with several other random students who had been close enough to Filch's wrath. It had been worth it to get under teachers' skin.

When breakfast was over, students were asked to welcome the guests through the front doors of the castle.

From the sky, came little by little, witches and wizards by broom, or carriages pulled by several Pegasus's and landed in the large yard. After the whole procession, the area was partially covered by the modes of transportation, and the people were busy unloading their luggage.

Suddenly, a team of about ten flyers came in, fashionably. Their quick, experienced and precise landing blew dust into the students lining the front. Only such flying could be poised to a pro-Quidditch player.

Among them made my eyes widen. The Victor Krum, dismounted his broom, and gave no polite greeting, only awesome stoic composure. Two wizards came up behind them to grab their suitcases and they rushed inside. A few of the otherly employed wizards and witches stayed behind to talk with the teachers, obviously previously inclined to them.

That night at supper, the head table was pushed back, and all the house tables were pushed closer to the doors to make room for a horizontally placed dining table for the visitors. I noticed that Snape, nor the Carrow's were at supper.

Pavarti and I had taken to judge who looked more attractive male visitors, as most girls in the room were. And most of the boys were rolling their eyes at us.

I happened to catch Clive's eye, as he was no doubt mocking Pansy Parkinson for being googly eyed, and he winked at me. I seriously questioned his motives every time we locked eyes. Sometimes he would glare, other times it would be seriously questionable.

I stuck my tongue out in return, and continued talking with my girlfriends.

After supper, McGonagall informed everyone that there would be a farewell party the last night of the guests' stay, Friday, for the sixth and seventh years to be invited, since they were leaving Saturday morning. I then went into deep conversations of how best to impress the Quidditch players.

"Well, in _Witch Weekly_, it said Krum's favourite colour on a woman was green or gold." Pavarti said.

Other girls had flooded to our table to gossip as well making me feel a little uncomfortable with everyone talking at once. There seemed to be three or four conversations at once, but everyone was keeping track except me. I preferred to impress with something other than my looks, and all anyone was doing was speaking of aesthetic tricks and charms.

I turned to Ginny, who was not chatting but rather almost sad-looking, and tried to cheer her up. "Do you think Krum prefers Chasers or Seekers?" I teased.

She instantly brightened (though not whole-heartedly) and giggled, "Oh, he probably prefers a more _fiery_ personality," She said, touching her brilliant red hair for effect.

"Well, he'll probably be out to watch our first game against Slytherin this Friday, if they're leaving the next morning." I said, trying my best to make her feel included. She nodded, and smiled, her eyes were still glassy. I squinted my eyes at her. She'd been this way for a while, since after I'd first met her. Ginny was thinking about him, I've been speculating for a long time now.

After everyone had gone to bed, only Ginny was awake. I would have never noticed her, save for her small sobs.

"It's that Potter boy, isn't it?" I asked softly, yet accusingly all the same.

"You're not the first to ask." She wiped a tear quickly. "All the other girls, they pester me too."

"I—" she caught me there, "I'm not here to pester you. Only to set the record straight."

"Set the _what_?" She asked genuinely.

"Never mind. I know you and Potter had a thing. Now I don't know him personally, so I can't really judge, but—"

"You're right. You don't," Ginny said defiantly.

"But I could hear you out if you want…" my offer hung in the air, as she thought for a moment.

"Perhaps." She sniffed, and composed herself for a moment. "Well, you already know how he's out there. Like, _out there_."

"Yeah."

"And, he's only got Ron and Hermione. I mean I trust them, but they've got the whole Ministry chasing after them." In the light of the fire, I could see Ginny take a swig of something. Where in the hell did she get that big bottle of Firewhisky on her hands? "And no one knows why he'd be gone for so long. It's been a month with no contact. Hell, Harry could be dead. I didn't even get to say 'I love you'." She hiccoughed, however she was thankfully out of tears.

I gave her a long hard hug. She would just not stop hiccoughing though. I sighed. "Come on, Ginny, off to bed." I stood, and pulled her with me, doubting she would remember a thing in the morning.


	9. Chapter 9: Teachers

Chapter 9: Teachers

I laughed to myself. If Ginny did remember anything, she wasn't making it known. Perhaps she had too much pride to admit she was a little bit drunk. It was the morning and everyone was up and ready, the younger students saddened that they had regular classes.

I had first, all afternoon, a seminar for potioneering. I think that our very own professor Slughorn could have done it himself, because he is very intelligible, but I knew it would have defeated the purpose. Instead, a wise old man with very white medium length hair was teaching us with his own contraptions set out in a tent outside.

He brought in a large flask of Felix Felicis. I couldn't identify half the potions I'm sure he would explain over the course of the afternoon.

First he gave us an introduction to his name, Dr. Bartholomew. Then he talked about what he does, and his work for the ministry and apothecaries, and sometimes, special orders. He seemed really comfortable around kids, which showed, when he brought out more fun stuff to brighten this otherwise dreary career path.

"Now students, there are some who order their ingredients, but your headmaster has graciously provided me with the space of the entire Hogwarts grounds to place ingredients where they are likely to be found. I want you to put yourselves into groups of three, for a scavenger hunt!" There was a pleasant hum all around the students who were here with me, surprised there would be even a little fun for this job. "Once you have yourselves sorted, you will all be given a ten ingredient list to bring back to me. The first group back will get each a tablespoon's worth of liquid luck.

I looked around and realized I literally had no friends. Right, I picked Potioneering as a _career_.

When almost everyone was in threes, I looked at the Doctor. I had no group. Then, I heard a boy's voice being cleared behind me, letting me know of his presence. He _would_ be in the same seminar as me.

I turned to him, and cowered slightly.

"Don't be shy, Brand, come with me and Malfoy here." Clive's arms were opened wide, and he patted me on the back as I came to his side. Malfoy sneered at me.

"What's _your_ interest in Potioneering?" I asked incredulously.

"What's not to love?" He asked back. I knew for a fact that he complained everyday in our Potions classes.

"That's the _same_ thing I ask myself about you every day."

"So you _do_ think about me," He waggled his eyebrows.

I paused, to roll my eyes, "…Hardly." And I took the ingredients list along with a map of the school grounds. There were little icons that popped off the pages indicating what types of plants and ingredients were grown there.

"Well, we have the… Love potion." I said, clearing my throat.

Clive turned to Malfoy disbelievingly, and sniggered to him, over my head. I wasn't that short but both boys were indeed tall.

Since neither made a move to leave, especially after all the other groups had left to scavenge, I sighed, walking right past them. I knew I'd be the only one doing any of the work.

"First things first, Frozen Ashwinder eggs. Damn, where are we to find those?" I asked myself. I later found that this Bartholomew fellow had set up stations with each ingredient, some of them looking like they had an obstacle to overcome.

"I'm bored."

"Are we done yet?"

"I'm not enjoying this."

"Hurry up, Brand."

"Do you think Pansy would shag me if I grew a moustache?"

The many intelligent words I have heard from idiot one and idiot two over this just dandy adventure.

By the end of an hour, we—sorry, _I _had acquired all six main ingredients for the love potion, and basically the two male bimbo's had trailed behind me. I had to scourgify myself numerous times, for I had fallen quite a bit in the process of retrieving some of the materials. I noted there were plenty of groups, probably most of them, who were still not back at the tent. We were first.

I felt like giving someone a high-five, however my only companions were possibly the bane of my existence… well, for the moment they were. They had absolutely no skills. If they did, then they did not care to show them. Which struck me as odd, since usually boys would be thought to brag.

As the final groups trickled in, we were presented with the bottles of liquid luck, and I would have snatched up all three vials for myself, if weren't something to make a scene. Oh the price I pay to appear normal.

"Congratulations on the first part of this seminar. Has everyone had fun?" Dr. Bart asked.

"Bloody hell, when is this thing over?" Malfoy asked, rather loud, if you ask me.

"Do you have _any_ tact?" I whispered to him.

The next hour we were made to complete the potion, and he instructed us about his daily schedule.

Once his seminar was over, I gave a huge sigh of relief, and went back up to my common room to have a good rest.

"They're nightmares, Pavarti, I'm telling you!" I exclaimed to my roommate.

"Try surviving six other years with them."

The next morning everyone was talking about the Quidditch seminar today at the pitch today at ten. I presumed it would be a great field day and decided to make my hair up to look it's best. My normally plain hair I had kept it up in a bun to let it dry with a wave to it. I then put on my cleanest uniform sweater, and psyched myself with the idea of Victor Krum actually being at our school.

"You look nice today, " Ginny stated groggily, no doubt a little hung-over.

"And you look…" I tried to find a adjective correct with her sad state, "Ravishing as always, Ginny."

"I hardly saw the point of getting ready this morning." She said, pushing her hair out of her face. I kind of respected that declaration.

"Well eat up, Gryffindor house is looking to impress," I said cheerily, and continued eating my breakfast.

On the pitch, there were plenty of kids. Of course all of the Quidditch players had signed up, and those who hadn't a class had come to watch anyways up in the stands.

Most of us had changed into our Quidditch attire, looking our sharpest.

Krum was not the first to speak. A woman, who I quite recognized had come to the front to speak, "The life of a pro is hard. We train daily, all through the year, all for a chance to make it to play in the Champion game. I'm Gwenog Jones, captain of the Holyhead Harpies," She said confidently. "If any of you think for a moment you have what it takes, we are here to tell you that you can't. That's our job. Your job is to prove us wrong. All of us were chosen to specifically scout for the next up and comings."

"Our seminar is to show you a day in the life of a professional Quidditch player." Said a man, who happened to be the seeker of Puddlemere United, Brett Walter.

Every moment of all the matches I've seen when my parents would bring me to the games flashed behind my eyes. These were truly amazing people. I was in a state of shock and awe as they moved theirs jaws to speak, I almost forgot to move, when they told us to spread apart into a large circle.

Our reflexes were tested as Victor Krum pulled out an IQA official snitch. Like the faster kind they use in the World matches. He released it and it flew around the circle.

"Do we have any Seekers here?" He said in his thick Bulgarian accent.

Four out of the some forty students raised their hands, including me.

"This Snitch it about three times faster than your average Hogwarts standard. Go on, test it out." The snitch flew around the Hufflepuff Seeker's head a couple times, and the boy had a hard time watching it, and got dizzy. Next it flew in and behind the Ravenclaw's back, he barely had time to look. Then it came by to tease Malfoy's hand, and whizzed to me. I lunged for it a couple times, but at last caught it before it started spiralling again.

A couple people gasped and I smirked, seemingly modest, when in fact this was a great accomplishment for me, especially in front of very important people.

"Show off," Ginny muttered jokingly as she nudged my elbow.

"Thanks for your support, Weasley." I walked across the circle to hand the snitch back into the experienced hands of Krum and took my place back in the circle.

"After a series of pro-level drills, you will be split into two teams selected by us to play a game just after supper." Gwenog said. Everyone, including me, started talking excitedly. Teams only consisted of seven players, so for only fourteen out of all of these kids, including some who hadn't made the school teams, to be picked made everyone instantly competitive.

Afterwards of immense amounts of training their style, we were all aching. This pain I was feeling was evidently the thing that us at Hogwarts were missing. I was definitely going to get Ginny to amp up our practices. I had originally thought I had better strength and endurance but this put all of those thoughts to rest.

In a snack break about halfway through the practice on a table to the side, Gwenog approached me with her goblet in hand.

"How's your grandma?" She whispered to me, not looking directly at me. "I heard she got out of a nasty scrape with the ministry."

"Helena said she's on the run. But then again, I wouldn't know much since I'm stuck at school. How're the Harpies holding up without her?"

"Decently, I suppose. We're all a bit shaken up without ol' Gran." I thought it was endearing the way the woman's eyes lit up when speaking about my grandmother.

"Who's taken over then?" I asked.

"The assistant coach, but our league has fallen apart since the Ministry's tracking down all the muggleborns. A third of our roster's been checked and we're missing a couple players. I can't imagine how the World teams are faring."

I hadn't really thought about that. Perhaps they would be having a tough time getting "eligible" players. The ministry truly is ridiculous. If you can wield a wand and perform magic like the rest of us, then I honestly see no problem with muggleborns.

Gwenog had left in favour of going back to talk with her fellow Quidditch players, but I was perfectly content with thinking to myself about the bloody ministry.

After the break, they called us back and their assistants had magically set up a course, to which we had to complete in the quickest time on the same brooms. It looked tough but I'd seen in before. My grandmother had taken me to a Quidditch camp for youngsters, and I knew I had the basics down. Other people looked mystified.

One by one, though the track was short, students mounted their brooms, and raced through the course, as several of the pros stood at the finish with their stop watches. I noted a lot of amateur mistakes, but tried not to criticize too much. This was a school, not a training camp.

When finally it was my turn, I kicked off hard, surprising even myself. My broom was of a newer model, so naturally it was easier to handle, and I made my way through the course effectively, tightly turning at all the right spots. I couldn't _help_ but notice the surprise on the Slytherins faces. Note my sarcasm.

"Fifty three seconds." Gwenog shouted for all to hear. I was a good ten seconds ahead of Ginny.

"Pfft, show off." I heard Malfoy mutter maliciously to Clive, who nodded in agreement. And when it was his turn, I came to the front of the students to really evaluate the two idiots' speed. I mean, I'd gone to several of the Slytherins' matches, but they hadn't shown me their true speed.

Malfoy was faster than Clive, given that the latter had let his foot get caught on a wooden plank towards the end. Even still, they were seconds behind my time. As Malfoy's time was shouted aloud he narrowed his eyes, but his housemates still gave him a cheer. I gained a smug expression and even humoured myself by clapping mockingly for him.

"You had a good run, I suppose, Malfoy," I said; as he pushed my shoulder with his own to join his lot.

Later, the handsome Victor Krum had awarded small prizes in the form of memorabilia. I had gotten his first World Cup snitch caught.

"Don't lose this," He said, smiling, and wrapping his large around mine as if to tighten my grip around the small golden ball. I honestly couldn't care less what Malfoy had received.

"You don't have to worry," I said shyly. I pocketed my prize and walked back to my Gryffindor buddies, trying my best to appear calm. How often does this happen? I suppose this _school_ business isn't so bad…


	10. Chapter 10: The Game

Chapter 10: The Game

We had been picked. Seven on the men's picked team, and seven for the women's picked team. I was on the women's team, whereas Ginny had been picked for chaser of the men's team.

As this was the last seminar of the day, almost the whole school had joined the crowd in the stands. There were even people who surely weren't teachers or students.

"Gwen, who are those people?" I asked, pointing to the high stands, as our coaches had gathered our team for a pep talk.

"Oh, don't mind them, they're scouts. Just the hype and all." Gwenog said nonchalant, even though for the rest of us it was a big deal. My team consisted of three Ravenclaws, two boys and a girl, who I trusted to be good Chasers, and the regular Hufflepuff Keeper. Our Beaters were one from Slytherin, Crabbe, (who despite his stupid outward appearance could admittedly hit a bludger) and one of my own, Seamus Finnegan. He was always a good cheer. Other than Crabbe, our team was a quick one, and easily towered over the mainly offensive based Krum's team. It would be close though, I anticipated.

On the other team, like I already mentioned, Ginny was a Chaser. I knew she'd have a tough time getting any passes from Clive. I expect a lot of physical contact from Malfoy, my Seeker counterpart, who was notorious for his sly tackles. Krum's selected team was good, but if we got past Ginny enough we'd prevail.

"All right kids, try not to break anything. I picked you all for a reason. Don't let me down!" Gwenog said, and exited the field. Well, it's a good thing Gwenog's not know for her speeches.

I mounted and took my spot atop of the circle and the rest of my teammates. The sooner I caught the snitch, the sooner we would win.

Madame Hooch dragged out the school certified Quidditch balls. She was interrupted, however, by one of Gwenog, who ran something to place in her hands. I saw a golden glint from my high perch. Ah dang, they weren't seriously going to make us play with _that_ were they? If this was the snitch I was thinking of…

"On my whistle!" the commanding professor shouted.

She quickly undid the bludgers, and finally let go of the snitch. She blew it, and tossed the quaffles up, and the chasers jumped at them, our team gaining possession first.

The snitch gave me a good run. I was chasing it close to the ground before it took a tight turn, and zoomed further and faster than I could turn. I took to the sky to survey the pitch better. Malfoy was perhaps aimlessly flying around the pitch hoping to find the snitch. He had absolutely no patience.

Finally I saw the sun glint off a far off spec, by some of the high bleachers. I zoomed toward it, on my mission. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Malfoy pick up on my scent, and he too started to follow me.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be, Malfoy?" I yelled behind myself. My voice was almost getting lost through the high speed.

I didn't hear his response, but when I looked back forward, there was a bludger coming at me from the side. I realized I was moving too quick to dodge it, but for some reason I thought it would be smart to try and kick it away. So with the bottom of my foot, I launched off the speeding ball. Pain shot through my right foot, and I strayed to the bleacher, almost hitting the teachers. I made sure though, to hit my good foot upon a certain bat-like headmaster's head.

I lost the trail of the snitch, but then so did Malfoy. I had time to see how my team was doing. We hardly had as much as I thought we would. In fact we had more. The opposite team only had sixty points against our strong 80 points. We were sure giving each other a good match.

I felt the bottom of my foot. I probably cracked or terribly bruised. I tried not to notice the low "Ouu" of the crowd as my injury had happened.

I flew around for a while, simply watching my team swiftly weave their way in through Krum's team.

I turned around, searching some more. Malfoy seemed unimpressed with my style and decided to stop following me. I don't think Malfoy noticed at all, but while he flew away after he insulted my skill level, the snitch started to sneak after him. How could that daft boy not hear the whizzing of the snitch?

I zoomed up next to Malfoy, knocking him aside for good measure. He smacked my foot with his elbow and caught up to the snitch with me. I yelped but shook it off, and spun, kicking him with my good foot, still following the snitch hard. The snitch literally brushed my nose three times, zigzagging in front of me, with constant speed and each time I would swipe missing by desperate inches.

The game ended conclusively after hard flying when I accidentally smacked the snitch, in attempts to grab it, to the side right into Malfoy's outstretched hand. The mistake I had just made had seemed to happen in slow motion.

The entire pitch was silent. I had slowed as Malfoy held the snitch proudly in the air. Not a second later did people start cheering. I lowered myself to the ground. Shame crept up my spine and weighed my arms down. I looked at the scoreboard. With their caught snitch, we were one hundred and twenty points behind. If I had waited to catch it instead of thinking of myself, then maybe… oh there were so many things I could have done better.

I was glad at least that our team had a very good lead. I momentarily sucked down my pride to permit myself to shake the other team's hands. But when I stepped off my broom to touch the ground my right leg collapsed under me in familiar shooting pain. Right, it's definitely broken.

I denied help and used my broom as a crutch and allowed it to carry my over under my armpit to shake the other teams hand. I ruffled little Ginny's hair, as she stuck her tongue out at me. I stopped to give Malfoy and scary enough glare, though it did not silence his sniggers.

Krum stuck his hand out roughly and wrapped his other arm around my shoulder, like he did for the other players on my team. Only me and the other girls seemed to melt. Well, the boys sort of did.

"You did very well, I thought," He said unintentionally intense. I think that's just how he normally was. His accent only added to that. "Especially after playing through that injury."

"Thanks!" I said. Despite losing, I think this definitely made up for it.

"Why are you so happy? You lost." Ginny said, coming up next to me after we got changed.

"Shut up, I still got complimented by _the _Krum." I managed to not sound bragging.

Ginny helped me limp up to the hospital wing, which seemed to go by fast as we chatted about certain Bulgarian Quidditch players.

"He's actually amazing with his plan of attack. I'm not sure if you noticed but even though you beat us in points, he taught us pretty neat tricks." Ginny said.

"Lucky. We would have showed you, if Malfoy wasn't so good at picking up my _garbage_." I said, referring to the snitch.

She laughed, but kept her opinions of Malfoy to herself, since it was pointless to point out our mutual hate all the time. Well not completely pointless…

I told Ginny to just go back to the common room while I waited for a quick and painless heal. I plopped myself on a hospital bed, waiting for the lady to come out. I still couldn't remember her name.

"Hello, Ms. Brand." She said from behind me in her stern voice. I have heard her voice before.

"Uh, hello, Madame…" I cringed, thinking I should know her name at the very least.

"Pompfrey. I remember you, Heidi. I knew your grandmother."

"Pompfrey? No way!" I said, jubilant. She gave me a warm smile. This the first warm welcome I'd received in a while.

"I heard she's on the run." She said quietly, after carefully sliding my boot off of my leg. I tried to hold back tears of pain. My foot was red on top; I could only imagine how it would bruise in a week if I weren't here with a healer. Trust me, waiting it out like a muggle is no fun.

"Yeah, I hope she's fine. Gwenog Jones asked about her earlier, and there's not much I can say. She used to talk about you a lot." _If that helps, _I added as an afterthought. Probably not, since we're talking about her like she's dead.

Madame Pompfrey abruptly stopped evaluating my foot to heal it with a 'pop' from her wand, and left swiftly, mumbling a shaky 'good day' and that she had more business to attend to, to me on her way out.

So here I was sitting on a hospital bed, all by my lonesome, not quite sure why people thought I _liked_ to feel alone.

The following morning after that eventful game, Ginny had called a little meeting in the courtyard for the DA members. We noticed that a couple of suspicious Slytherins would slip by occasionally, but none drew near enough to listen, as we would send dark stares in their general direction. Teachers wouldn't think us _that_ stupid, would they?

"Alright guys, I just wanted to say that it's great that you're all here. Keep showing up when you get my call, and we'll have a great resistance going in no time!" Ginny said enthusiastically. She paused for a second, as another green-robed boy passed by. "And we'll be having a Christmas party before the year is out, hopefully before the train leaves, on the thirteenth."

We steadily progressed into talking about how lax the teachers were now that there were people here to witness.

"Snape must've sent out a strict order, because they've never been this good to us," A Hufflepuff boy said. There were a few chuckles, but still there was bitterness in the air. This must have once been a great school to be in.

After Ginny dismissed everybody, I spoke: "Hey, Ginny, do you think the Harry support slogans were received well?" I asked jokingly.

She gave me thumbs up; "I can only assume that because Snape is only giving _me_ dirty looks that he knows it was us."

"Oh, you think so?" I asked slowly.

"Yeah, I'm surprised he hasn't tried to infiltrate us or anything. We must be better than I thought." We fist bumped.

"Yep, we're pretty t-tight knit." I said as she turned to wave at someone else on our way up to the dormitory.

"What? Yeah, I guess." She headed faster than me up the stairs, which gave me time to think.

I hadn't realized how close I had grown with my dorm mates. I had almost completely forgotten about Snape's previous quarrels in the last couple of days. He had barely looked at me, especially after I had intentionally tried to hurt him during the game. Maybe he would explode later, after everyone has left? Well for the moment I would enjoy my solace.

**Okay, so first of all, i would like to say how sorry i am that i have been really late in updating. i started a bit of the eleventh chapter, but no promises in it being up within the week, because i have exams... well easy exams (advanced functions and french)but still, studying has been taking up my time..**

**i hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and i look forward to your reviews****.**

**-sage94**


	11. Chapter 11: Hiding

Chapter 11: Hiding

I don't think I'd enjoy being a curse breaker all that much anyway, so I decided against leaving on time for the seminar for that particular job. After a long, _long_ nap, I walked down to the Great Hall, late. As I expected, I found a large group of students who were no doubt very excited for this career. They were a little annoyed since I walked in and everyone was silent.

"So nice of you to join us," The man said from the side of the room. Everyone had gathered round him in desks, which had been put in place of the long tables for meals. He was at least very polite about me being late.

"Don't be rude, Heidi, excuse yourself to Mr. Weasley." A one McGonagall scolded me.

"Sorry, Mr. Weasley." I said, heading to sit down, my echoed footsteps were not at all helping.

"Don't worry about it," He muttered back to me, smiling warmly. I couldn't find Ginny in here, then I remembered she didn't sign up for this particular course, never mentioning why. Now I realize it was because the person running this event was her-possibly-older relative. She certainly looked a lot like him.

I didn't pay much attention until he had us watch him demonstrate the opening of a portable tomb, which he had replicated from an ancient Egyptian pharaoh's tomb. He took his practiced precautions, but I was way more interested in the fact that his younger twin brothers were currently running a joke shop in Diagon Alley. I don't even think I had the chance to utilize their stuff that I bought. It must be still at the bottom of my trunk.

I silently slipped out of the room while he had other kids have a run at the tomb, not planning at coming back at all.

In my room I sat, taking a look at the items I had placed at the bottom of my suitcase with a concealment charm worthy of duping the front gate's security check. I enlarged the bag that my stuff was held in. I pulled out first the little candies. I wanted to try them, but was really worried about them at the same time. Next I took out self-writing quills. That would come in handy with future homework for sure. Then I found the jacket. I had to giggle. I was never quite the person to be seen wearing punk style clothing, but for this find I had to make an exception. I decided to put it on over my white school blouse, but my skirt and tights didn't match at all. I evaluated the jacket in the mirror, and knew it would take some getting used to.

I walked out of my corridor wondering what I should do with my new toy. There weren't too many kids out here in the corridor, and most didn't see me, so I figured I was pretty invisible. I confirmed this when I realized I could no longer see my hands and feet below me. Invisibility was an odd feeling.

After getting used to walking without seeing my feet, I successfully made it down the first couple of grand staircases. With my spare time, I decided to stalk some of the teachers. Since most of them didn't have class, it would be the perfect opportunity to figure out what exactly they did in their spare time.

I first tried to follow around McGonagall. She seemed to stop her strides down the hallways every now and then to listen so I had to quickly leave her in case she found me out. Meh, she's probably boring anyways.

Then I went out to the grounds and followed Professor Sprout. In her spare time she would walk around her greenhouses and kept the plants watered. Why, I have no idea. If I were a teacher here, I would be gone on every occasion I was spared. I personally was not a very big fan of children, unless they were very cute. So no offence to Sprout, but she wasn't a very interesting person.

And over the course of an hour and a half, most of the teachers I followed were positively the most boring beings on the planet. All were trying hard to prepare lesson plans, and in the case of the two Carrow's, they were preparing punishments, all of their punishments appearing crueler than previous.

At long last I was bored of these terrible creatures I called my professors. That is, until Snape crossed my path. In his hands were simple books, but I wasn't worried about those. Snape just intrigued me for some reason. Be it his lack of hygiene, his immediate disdain for me, or his merciless behavior, he still perplexed me to no end.

I followed him around, careful to keep a distance. He stopped to visit all the professors, for a list of outstanding students he needed to talk to after this week. It seemed like average headmaster duties I suppose; overlook the students and yada-yada. He stopped by the Carrows who were together in the muggle studies classroom.

"Professor Carrow, your students updated status reports are overdue." He said customarily. I was debating walking away, since Snape had proved overall uninteresting.

"Come off it Snape, I'll give it to you when we get back to regular class." The male said.

Snape closed his eyes and shook his head. But he suddenly changed tone when Ms. Carrow flicked her wand to close the door. I was debating whether or not to leave before, but now it was decided that I would stay.

"The Dark Lord has called another meeting." The entire room seemed to dim as Mr. Carrow spoke. His voice was low, as if still wary even though not many were in this wing of the castle.

I was frozen. Of course I knew there were supporters of the Dark Lord, but for this to be confirmed in a room full of Death Eaters who were experienced in the art of killing was shocking. I couldn't breath.

"I am aware." Snape said coolly.

"Did he tell you what for?" He said stupidly. Well, only in the stupid way she usually speaks.

"I am not certain, but it may have something to do with a boy of seventeen years old running around playing hide and seek." Snape said smugly.

The professor scratched his head, "But wouldn't the Potter boy be no problem to us if he's—" Snape cut him off.

"Your logic astounds me as always." Snape said sarcastically, "in order for the dark lord to truly be in power he must make sure that the boy is eliminated."

"It was in the Prophecy, you idiot." Ms. Carrow said, slapping him upside the head. "Just confirming." She said to Snape.

"In any case, he is not an immediate threat, as we have all his allies under heavy watch." Snape said.

"I just wish you didn't invite that Weasley to the school for the workshops." She said darkly.

"Grudgingly the blood traitor is talented. It was not my choice, I had McGonagall select the instructors."

"The only posts we haven't control over just yet…"

Snape nodded in return, "Well if that is all…" he turned on his heel and I followed closely behind. I was ready to burst with fear.

He flicked open the door, and I slid through just as he flicked the door back shut with a wave of his wand.

The only way back was to follow him, but I fully intended on not being discovered.

But as I followed him through the empty corridor, I noticed he was getting gradually slower; his robes weren't billowing. I stopped walking altogether, and held my breath for dear life. Snape stopped, and turned round to survey behind him. His black eyes passed over me, not knowing he made eye contact with me for a fraction of a fraction of a second.

He shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts and continued his stride, leaving me behind. That was too close.

Later at supper, I walked into the crammed Great Hall late, and sat with my friends, I'm sure my face was as white as a sheet.

"What's wrong? You're not eating." Ginny whispered to me.

"I had always had a feeling." I mumbled back in response.

"About what?"

"Snape. The Carrow's." I nodded to them at the head table, and Ginny followed my gaze.

She momentarily closed her eyes and nodded. "So what happened?"

"Well I overheard them talking. There's a meeting tonight. Death Eaters." I spat out their names like poison on my tongue.

**Yeah, sorry for the update long past-due. grade eleven is getting soooosoo hectic. but now since its march break, its chill.**

**Please Review guys,**

**-sage94**


	12. Chapter 12: Evening

Chapter 12: Evening

My mother had sent a dress in the mail for the final night of the guests' stay. Everyone was excited, but in all honesty I was still in shock. I couldn't tell my mother about what I had found out. Ginny told me it would be too much of a risk to send through owl. All I could write was about how stressed I was with school, average stuff for other kids.

The dress was a navy blue and smooth like water. This reminded me of the time I had gone to my first muggle dance with a friend. Of course I was an awkward little girl hardly developed, and the dance was separated with one end having all the girls, and the other having all the boys, each group too nervous to talk to the other.

As I slipped the dress over my head, I spotted a tube of lipstick falling out of the bodice of the dress. I opened it and crammed into the cap, rolled up, was a note.

_Dear Heidi,_

_This dress was worn by myself, your mother and is now for you to keep. Put it to good use sweetheart and keep strong. I'll come get you when I can. _

_-Love Gran_

If her signature hadn't stated, I would've recognized her by the handwriting. It had an elegant lilt and contrasted her strong personality. Her short letter had made my eyes water. I quickly folded up the letter and stuffed it under my mattress.

Soon everyone was in the room, showing each other their dresses, and bewitching their hair. I stood awkwardly. Social outings were not my forte.

With my hair straight and dress on, I finally decided to walk up to Snape's office, where the party was held. I hadn't realized until now that I hadn't gotten my hair cut since the beginning of the summer, and now my hair reached the bottom of my shoulder blades.

I made sure my dress wouldn't slip down, and walked alone to the headmaster's office.

I had gone walking around the school alone before, but never quite at night. It must be eight o'clock by now. Ginny had left long ago with the rest of the girls in our year, and I was sort of thankful, because now I was left to my thoughts. They consisted of how I would act around Snape and the Carrow's. Even though I knew none of them could see me, I still had the strangest sensation I was about to jump off of a cliff whenever Snape came to mind. His demeanour had that effect on me. Even more so after the close encounter earlier.

I approached the statue, which slid aside as I spoke the password softly, "Evening dance." I thought I was an odd thing to call a password, but must have been so blatantly evident that it would be hard to guess. It must be for the occasion.

Up the winding stairs, a doorman greeted me, and ushered me through. The place was richly decorated tastefully, but it certainly did not remind me of the Snape flair. Obviously he had no choice in the décor. I spotted him standing in slightly less drab robes than usual, in the small balcony overlooking the rest of his office. His expression made me giggle. It was a cross between annoyance and an ugly staged smile. Snape should never smile again, in my opinion.

I found Ginny sipping from a small champagne glass, speaking to none other than Victor Krum. Still elated from the last time I met Krum, I stood for a moment wide eyed, not quite sure what to do.

"And who is _this_?" A voice asked suggestively, and a hand wrapped itself around my hip.

"What the hell?" I said rather loudly. I turned to see Clive. He looked just as surprised as me, and took an immediate step back.

"Heidi? You're not supposed to look so… so…" He was at a loss for words and kept trying to look at me. He appeared to be looking past me, maybe to find some of his goons to support him.

"Nice?" I supported this imbecile with an answer.

"Well, not that you don't look nice, its just—" before he could finish, I turned around and stood in the group with Ginny, not at all eager to hear what he had to say. She nodded to me, and continued to speak to Gwenog and Krum.

"Well I am considering going to the try out, but then again I'm not sure of what else is out there."

"Whatever's good for you, Ginny," Gwenog said supportively, "But I will always leave you a spot to try out."

"Ginny, there is no need to associate yourself with that league. You have potential to make it to worlds." Krum said, lightly teasing Gwenog's status.

"And what about you, Heidi?" Gwenog asked me while elbowing Victor hard on his arm.

"Well, I haven't gotten any real offers." I said shrugging my shoulders.

"I know worlds does not have very many women, but many do try out. Take Bulgaria for example. Not very many women are strong enough to compete at such a high level."

"Is that a challenge?" I asked with a tad annoyed. Ginny and Gwen looked at him to hear his answer.

"I—" he obviously did not know what he just did: insulting the skills of three women at once.

I quirked my eyebrow at him, but smirked at his embarrassment. He looked out of his element.

"And you didn't even pick up a drink yet." Ginny said clapping my shoulder amiably.

"Ha, I'm not allowed to drink, but just wait til I do." I promised her, and winked.

The rest of the night continued on pleasantly, with very few furtive glances in Snape's direction. He seemed to be preoccupied with something else anyways. His eyes were trained on Neville's group. I wondered why.

I joined another conversation with Neville and Seamus. They were hushed and jumped when I approached.

"So, no news on Dean?" Seamus whispered, but I could hear from this short distance.

"Who's Dean?"

"Heidi! Don't sneak up on my like that!" Seamus said to me.

"Quit acting like you've got something to hide." I quipped back and fully took in the group. They were standing with a slightly older man, the curse breaker, Weasley.

"You're Ginny's uncle, right? Or relative? She's a good friend of mine." I asked equally as hushed as this group was beforehand.

"Brother, actually." The man said after a sip of his drink. "Bill Weasley." He extended his hand and I took it.

I nodded in acknowledgement. "Now may I ask why you have Snape's undivided attention?" I asked. The group froze as if this statement was a big surprise. Which to them, I guess it was. None of them wanted to draw more attention by looking at him, and instead lowered their gazes.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Weasley." I said loud enough for anyone to hear. I had to make sure this seemed normal.

Soon enough, the music playing became louder, and people started to pair up. I smiled to myself as I saw Ginny in Victor Krum's arms. I found Bill a little to the side, and subtly came to lean against the stone wall beside him, mimicking his position.

He quirked an eyebrow and tilted his head in my direction. "Care to dance?" He asked finally.

"I would love to." I said, knowing I won that little stare down.

"So how's the family?" I asked.

"Good. Ginny talked about you in her letters home." Bill reminded me thoroughly of his younger twin brothers. They had the same impishly good looks, but obviously Bill had a certain sense of propriety.

"Really? How much?" It was always nice to hear that you were spoken of.

"Bits here and there. You're good at Quidditch and you like to procrastinate."

"My reputation precedes me." I said. I suddenly had a thought. "How's the order?"

"Shh!" He said. He continued in a much lower tone. "Ginny's not supposed to talk about it. How much do you—" He was cut off.

"Can I cut in?" A one Victor Krum asked.

Bill backed off, but I was worried when he headed in Ginny's general direction.

For a few moments it was awkward, especially when Victor stared intensely.

"So how is Quidditch?" I asked, eager to break the silence.

"Quite good. We have a really good shot at the title this year." He smiled and twirled me. He made me look like a good dancer.

"You know, one day you'll see me on the pitch at the World Championships, and then you'll wish you'd never made fun of me earlier."

"I'd like to see that." He said, laughing. It wasn't condescending, but rather jovial, like he was hoping it would come to pass.

"Just wait til I graduate." I said determined.

"I was drafted to the Bulgarian team when I was in my sixth year and played in the World Championships in the same year."

"I know. Your face was all over Witch Weekly." I said it stupidly, without thinking. I ended up blushing while he appeared nonchalant.

"That must've been a lot of pressure." I muttered, reconsidering.

"It was nothing. Just play the game." He said, and he grinned widely, continuing our dance in content silence. When the song ended, he bowed out, and said he had to share with the other girls. I had to laugh at that.

I left for the sidelines of the dance and took a drink from the pumpkin juice fountain.

"You clean up good, Brand." I heard Clive say from beside me.

"Don't you have some innocent fourth year to fuck over?" I asked, turning my gaze away from him.

"Hey, that was low." He came closer to my side.

"Yeah, it was." I said coldly and I definitely wasn't denying.

"So I saw you dancing with Krum. You haven't got a chance." He hid his expression following that by drinking from his glass.

"What's it to you? Of course I know I don't." I said, rolling my eyes. Victor Krum was an international super star and I was a kid in school. There was no way and we both knew it. Clive was just trying to get to me by emphasizing my unimportance.

"You know what? I take my earlier comment back. There's no way even a Slytherin would sleep with _you_." I walked away, to find Ginny to say I was going back to the common room. I looked at the time on the clock, and it was eleven. This was earlier than usual than when I would go to bed, but I would prefer curling up in my bed for a bit. Ginny waved me away, and continued dancing with a boy from Ravenclaw in her own year.

I gave one last glance at Snape, who returned the stare and sneered in response, and left his office. It was a shame. Clive ruined my night after having a very good time.

I took off my heels, and walked down the corridors, the pads of my feet slapping the stone floors.

Behind me, I could hear someone's footsteps. I quickened my pace. I quickly noticed that the sound that once was following me had stopped. I turned to see Clive, drunkenly walking in my direction.

"you know Brand, you think you're so tough. Just—" he paused to hiccough, "just wait until he gets the school."

"He?" I asked, approaching him. Clive was speaking absolute gibberish.

Clive ignored what I said, and leaned into my shoulder humming something all the while. He had one too many to drink obviously. I rolled my eyes and pushed him off of me with ease.

"Hey!" He slurred drunkenly, but he still stumbled back.

"Clive what are you talking about?" I asked.

"Nope, not without a kiss." He winked, and lurched closer.

"How about I promise you one?" I asked, knowing for sure he wouldn't remember a thing of this.

He nodded, and stabilized himself by holding his arms out wide. "The school won't be safe for you mudbloods anymore."

"I'm a halfblood." I added quickly, just to remind him.

"Oh, right!" He was actually very funny when he was smash-faced, "Well Vol…" He quieted and trailed off, as he fell to the floor, curling up into a ball.

"What did you do to him this time, Brand?" I looked far down the corridor to see a contrastingly sober Malfoy, waltzing towards me with a slightly concerned face for his friend.

"Nothing, your boy just couldn't hold his alcohol." I nudged Clive's sleeping face with my bare foot.

"He's making a proper mess of himself over you." Malfoy said, by this time he was standing on the other side of Clive.

"So I've noticed… Well it is _way_ past my bedtime. Hopefully I don't have the pleasure of talking to you again."

"Likewise," Malfoy replied, unimpressed.

I could hear Malfoy mumbling something about having to fetch Crabbe and Goyle. Heaven knows I wouldn't want to pick up Clive by myself. I sort of envied he had henchmen, in the least sadistic sense possible.

**Yeah, so i thought i would be able to pump out like thirty chapters this entire MB but unfortunately not. Sorry bout thaat folks. Hopefully 2 will suffice. anyways, please review this wonderful chapter. and i will post Heidi's dress on my profile, for those of you who enjoy visual aids ;)**

**-Sage94**


	13. Chapter 13: Last Day

Chapter 13: Last Day

I made it to the common room the rest of the way without incident. And for that I was very appreciative. I didn't need anymore drunk run-ins with certain Slytherins, and I wasn't going to make a habit of it. I wrote his words away as simple ramblings.

Occasionally I would get a familiar feeling of being watched, but I blew it off because I had bigger stuff to worry about. Like how I was going to pass McGonagall's course with a current mark of Acceptable. That was practically a fail in the profession of Aurors.

I knew it was either Snape or Clive staring anyhow. I noticed that Snape was looking very tired as of late, and was probably busy with his unmentionable business as an evildoer. From what Ginny had been saying lately at the meetings, the Death Eaters

If all went to pot, then I could make a swell nomad.

Finally the winter holidays were rolling around. The first snow had begun on December the third, and had never quite let off.

At breakfast, Ginny kept looking over at me from across the table with calculating eyes.

"What?" I finally asked.

"Nothing, nothing." She caved though, a couple minutes later and some prompting by kicking her leg lightly under the table. "Okay… Well I was wondering what you were doing this holiday."

"I'm not sure. Why? Did you want to visit?" I asked. This sounded cool. I've never actually had the pleasure of getting to know very many people and their families, other than my parents' acquaintances. They didn't count though, because they weren't technically _my_ friends.

"Well, yeah, actually. Would your parents be okay with that?" She asked nervously. Maybe she didn't get many visitors, like myself.

"I'd like that." I said, nodding quite pleased.

She walked me to my first class: Transfiguration. I entered the first class on the last day of school before the holidays with a chipper smile, despite knowing that McGonagall would probably have a fully planned lesson. She was one of the strictest instructors I've ever had. That probably didn't count for much, since I was only taught by a handful of people, including my parents.

Throughout the whole of the year, I had the bliss of sitting as far away from Clive as possible. He hadn't even had the chance to bother me all this while because our professor had zero tolerance for… the kind of stuff a Slytherin like him would do.

This particular day though, she did not have a lesson, like I had counted on. She busied herself with constant marking, promising everyone an interim mark before we left for the class.

"Just please behave." She said, and returned to her desk.

I didn't have very many friends since this was mostly a class full of Ravenclaws and Slytherins, other than Padma. But Padma was a little more talkative than I would've liked.

"So what are your plans for winter break?" Clive slyly came to sit beside me, as Padma vacated her seat in favour of someone more likely to respond to her never ending talking.

"Go away Clive." I said nonchalant.

He snorted, like what I said was ridiculous. I guess to some extent it was silly to ask of him. "Make me." He said with a grin.

I cocked my eyebrow, and leaned back into my notebook. Which was open at an empty page. "Go make-out with your boyfriend, Draco." I chirped. Instead of running off to lick his wounds like he should have, he shrugged and moved his chair a little closer.

He watched me start to draw pointless swirls of ink into my notebook for the longest while. "You still haven't answered my question."

"And what is it of interest to you?" I said, not looking up from my page.

"Just curious." I did a speculating double take. Was that genuine?

Since I was so caught off guard, I answered, albeit slowly. "Spending a little bit of time with my family, then maybe going to the Weasleys."

"Oh." He said. Being nice, and asking about someone other than himself was obviously foreign to him. 'Oh' is right.

I was spent, and he couldn't find anything else to talk about, so he moved seats back to Malfoy, who patted him on the back sympathetically. I made eye contact with Malfoy and gave him a 'seriously?' look. I sat alone for the rest of the double period, trying really hard to not look back at Malfoy and Thicknesse in confusion.

Before going to the Great Hall for lunch, I really made a point to go to the owlery to send my mom the news of going to Ginny's house for a bit of Christmas. On the way there, though, I couldn't help but listen in to a conversation between two Slytherins.

"…Malfoy, I swear, she said she would. Brand thought I was drunk, but I surprisingly remember."

"This wouldn't be the first time you imagined something when you were drunk."

"Shut up."

"There's no way a Gryffindor would kiss you. Were you awake all the times she said she would rather die than be with you?" Malfoy said. I peeked around a stone statue, and saw Malfoy and Clive semi-arguing while shivering in their scarves.

"She's never _quite_ worded it like that." He said thoughtfully.

"Come off it, Clive." They sounded almost normal, without a Gryffindor in their midst. Well, _I_ was in their midst, but they didn't technically know.

"So what? She'll give in. I know it." Clive said, determined. But it wasn't angry sounding. In fact it sounded like he was slightly passionate for something other than torturing younger kids. He didn't sound like his usual self when his voice was that way. And it was too bad I would never let him get the chance to act this way. "And I wish she didn't spend so much time with all of those mudbloods and blood traitors. She said she was spending Christmas with the Weasleys." He said my friend's last name like it was dirt. Now I definitely won't talk to him, unless forced.

Malfoy chuckled and clapped him on the back good-naturedly. "Good luck with that, mate."

"Yeah, I suppose that's a bit impossible. But hey, we could take now and obliviate later." He said. I almost vomited where I stood.

"Yeah, I don't think she'd let you in close enough range for you to cast a spell, let alone be in confidence with her." Malfoy said jokingly.

I shivered in disgust a little. They were actually nice to each other? I mean it would be sweet to see bromance any other time, but these two? I almost led myself to believe they were normal, until they said that last part. I don't want to know where they might've used that slogan before. For a millisecond.

I left before I could let myself stay there to spy longer, and back up the path to the owlery. I found my owl and clipped my letter into the little buckle attached to my owl's little ankle. I hoped that they would let me, considering I wasn't allowed to do much of anything else teenage-wise. Just please give me this friend.

It wasn't until after suppertime did I get a message back from my parents, not that I was expecting a message straight away.

"What's wrong?" Ginny said, through chewing her food.

She saw my furrowed brow as I read. "See for yourself."

"_Heidi, I think you should come home first. We would be glad for you to visit with someone your age for a change; however, we find it in your best interest to bring her to our home instead of Ginny's home. Please don't tell Ginny, but what with the times, we think it would be more favourable for you both to remain with us for the holidays." _Ginny stopped reading, and glanced up at me with mischievous eyes. We snorted out a laugh at the silliness of my parents.

"They'll let up once they meet you. I can be very persuasive." I said with a wink.

"And they wouldn't let you, simply once they find out how amazing I am?" She asked, feigning offended.

Once lunch was over, we went back up to our classes to finish off the school part of the day.

Herbology went uneventful and rather finely, but something or _someone_ made my final class for the year not quite as fun as I would have liked. And the class was already a _joy_ with the professor. Since Mr. Carrow let all the Slytherins do whatever they wanted, Clive had the privilege to come sit next to me.

Neville, my usual seating partner, came to tap him on the shoulder. The contrast between the two males was incredible; Neville was tall, gangly, uncoordinated, but his niceness definitely outweighed what most people would consider faults. Clive was in most ways the opposite. Sure he was regrettably good looking, but he had unparalleled vainness and attitude that countered them.

"Thicknesse." Neville said expectantly. Since the first time I'd met him, his confidence had greatly increased, but still his voice wavered a smidge.

"Longbottom!" Clive pretended to be good-natured, but his demeanour held some undertones of aggression.

"You're in my spot."

"And?" Clive said expectantly. I kicked his foot.

"Clive, move your arse somewhere else." I muttered under my breath.

"Ouch, Brand. You don't really want me to leave, do you?" He asked. The bell rang for class to start.

"Do you want me to spare you the answer?" I said, starting to shove him out of Neville's seat.

"She can't keep her hands off me, can she, Neville?" He asked bemused. I immediately stopped touching him.

Both Neville and I were about to yell at him, when the professor came up, silencing anything we were about to say.

"What is this?" He said, placing a firm hand on my shoulder.

"Clive won't take no for an answer." I muttered.

"Neville, take another seat before I give you a detention." Professor Carrow said before squeezing my shoulder. "And play nice with others, Brand."

I huffed, and crossed my arms not at all please with this class. I turned to look at the front at Neville, giving him an apologetic stare. He wasn't looking at me though. He was looking hatefully at the teacher, who had gone to stand at the front of the class.

"Children, we are starting a new unit. I wanted to give an introduction before you were all sent home for the holidays." He walked around the front, making sure he made eye contact with everyone before continuing. "Unforgivable curses."

No one made a sound. Slowly people start to whisper, even a few Slytherins hi-fived.

"Imperio, Crucio, _Avada Kedavra_." His voice held a seductive air about it. Like he was talking about a woman, not an illegal curse. "You have to mean them." More silence from most of us too scared to move.

I couldn't focus on anything other than Clive tapping his fingers, the ticking clock and clenching my fists.

"I want you all to watch some slides with examples of wand technique and results of… well, these curses. Copy the table from page 278 from your texts and fill that out with this information." He said this like it was funny.

Carrow set up the slides, with moving pictures. I still didn't move to open my books.

"Such a romantic subject." Clive said, pulling me closer to him.

"That is quite enough, Thicknesse." Drawled a voice directly and closely behind us. The door was ajar behind this black-robed figure. I gulped.

"Sorry professor Snape." I said, hushed, careful not to draw any more attention.

His eyebrow, always contradicting me, travelled again up his forehead. He moved to the side of the classroom to observe. Carrow came to his side and spoke to him. As we copied the note, with great difficulty, I tried to listen into the conversation, without much avail. Snape would occasionally gaze in my direction, and I would have to quickly get back to my work.

When the class was about to end, I heard just loud enough, though I'm sure that not many people made much of it, "I'll see you and your sister at eight."

Against my better judgment, I had a feeling to want to go check out their meeting. Part of me hoped it was about Death Eaters.

After supper was over, I told Ginny I would be back at the common room before ten thirty.

"What are you going to do out past curfew?" Ginny asked.

"Just snooping. You can join me if you want." I said, pulling on my leather jacket.

"Is that my brothers' jacket?" She asked, feeling around for me.

"You bet."

"Damn. They never let me actually use _any_ of their stuff! But no, maybe after the break we can start finding more information from Snape together."

With that, I left early to find Snape and follow him.

He was on his way, just on time, by the time I caught up with him, and he made sure this time to close the door quickly, so I had to slip inside, almost touching him. The room was dim, like last time, cold, like last time, but it was missing something. Were the Carrow's late? It didn't make sense. I went to sit on the ledge

Suddenly, he whipped to face me, pulling his wand, casting a spell. I barely, dodged the red blast of light, and fell to the floor. I had to try to roll across the floor to escape the rest, and finally got to my feet. I hid behind a desk. He waltzed across the classroom, as if knowing indefinitely and stopped short of my spot. Almost as suddenly as he first turned on me, the desk I was leaning against shattered into splinters. The leather on my back protected me, but still he had guessed where I was.

I skipped to the next desk, this one also being shattered, but this left the middle lane for the door open.

My first couple of steps were free, but he sent a binding curse at me, stopping my feet short. I'm surprised he left the rest of me free. Maybe he thought it would be easier to catch me. But he was destroying desks.

I landed; clutching my wand tucked in my sleeve, and whispered, "Diffindo." It was a clumsy enough spell, and it cut the ankles of my pants.

The door was already opened, but I couldn't put on the brakes and fell into the dark robed chest of Mr. Carrow. He righted me, and shoved me back to the floor, and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!" I dropped my wand, but was unable to pick it back up.

"Oi, who is it?" He asked. His sister's wand was extended to my chest.

"A brat?" Ms. Carrow proposed.

I looked above me, and saw Snape looking down at my invisible form, not acknowledging either professor. He seemed to know what to look for, and felt along my torso. He grasped the leather in his hands and followed the fabric up to the collar.

"Weasley." He murmured. I knew he must have found the tag. Once revealed, the tag was the only thing visible. I couldn't shake with fear, but trust me, I would have.

He let the body bind curse go for a moment to try and take off the jacket, but I kicked and throttled out of his arms. The Carrow's tried to grab hold of me, but I slipped past their grasp since I was invisible. As I ran down the hallway, they sent stunning spells down my way.

"Diffindo!" Snape cried. He knew I was sporting disillusionment-charmed clothing and was rather trying to reveal my identity.

A rebound off the wall of his spell hit my side, biting my skin, but most importantly tearing the coat in that particular area. The coat didn't fade to vision, but in the area where it was cut you could see my skin and clothing. I kept running in mazes for all I was worth.

**I'm sorry this took so long. My fanfiction uploader was not functioning, so i couldn't actually upload anything to this particular story. Imagine that, an uploader not uploading!**

**Anyways, Review Please :)**

**-Sage94**


	14. Chapter 14: Leaving

**aha here's the update. late enough right? well review, and i'll see what i can do about a 15th chapter ;)**

Chapter 14: Leaving

Thankfully they were led astray and walked past me as I hid behind a statue, and I made my way back to my common room. Too close for comfort.

The only people who were still left in the common room were Ginny, Neville, Seamus and Pavarti.

"Hey." I said, plopping myself in the space between Ginny and Neville.

"How'd it go?" Ginny asked. She handed me a chocolate frog and a small bottled pumpkin juice. I tried to focus on easing my breathing.

"Quite well. But I didn't find out much, I suppose." I opted to tell them as little as possible.

"Where's your jacket?" She asked after a while of sitting in front of the fire.

"I, er, actually ripped it by accident." I mussed my hair and tried to appear nonchalant.

"Oh, that sucks. On what?" Everyone leaned in to listen, making me even more uncomfortable with lying.

"My clumsiness. I caught it on a door. But hey, maybe we can make a trip down to Diagon Alley." I proposed. She nodded, I knew she was suspicious, but wouldn't bring anything up in front of everyone else.

We all made our way to bed, and I walked up with Pavarti. I dumped my jacket into the room's hamper and went straight to bed, though my eyes wouldn't close for some time.

The following morning, we all got up earlier than usual to get packed. Ginny followed me closely, but aside from her, around the common room I avoided everyone. Snape must know how guilty the spy must be feeling. Or maybe not, but that's how _I _am feeling. I should be in Hufflepuff for crying out loud.

"Hey, walk with me to breakfast, will you?" Ginny finally demanded. I was secretly relieved she was so observant; otherwise it would be difficult for me to bring it up. We linked arms and strode downstairs.

At the precise moment that we were turning to enter the Great Hall, Snape made his appearance, walking alongside my potions professor, Slughorn. My stride was compromised and I tried to compensate by walking faster, but I knew from the burn in my back that the headmaster had taken note.

When we sat—and it wasn't for long, because we wanted to get to the train as soon as possible—I told her what had happened.

"So he caught you again?" she asked after I was finished.

"Well, he didn't catch me either times."

"You're lucky you still have a pulse. He might as well have caught you," Ginny said, "So you're the reason for every time we pass him, he's always breathing down our necks." She finished spitefully, as Snape left the Great Hall, passing the length of our table.

I decided not to phase myself by turning to look at him, but he still had the chilling effect, and his breeze from his passing by still moved me.

"No, you're forgetting that we're apart of the most watched group in school."

By ten o'clock, anyone who was leaving had loaded onto the train and we were all packed into our compartment.

I dug through my luggage to find some more comfortable clothes.

"You know, you could have changed at school, Snape's not going to curse you for wearing regular clothes on a holiday." Seamus poked.

"I'm just being careful." I said, though truthfully, this morning I had forgot we were going home. Yes, I was that distracted.

I pulled out a t-shirt, sweater and a pair of jeans, and scaled the train to find an empty compartment.

It was easy enough. Before we had left, the week before school was out, the running debate was that the school was safer than home. Many first years were kept at school either by order of their parents or choice. Though I thought it would be safer at home. But this was a good reason for why I was not being trampled by little bodies, much like my first day on the train. The contrast was amazing.

A couple doors down, I found an empty compartment, glad to rid myself of my skirt and tights. I pulled my jeans on and was pulling my t-shirt when the door slid open. I slid that white t-shirt on for all I was worth, praying the intruder didn't see.

"Oh, sorry." A feminine voice said. I turned to see a dishevelled Slytherin girl and standing behind her was Clive with his arms wrapped around her torso. His eyes lit up with the realization it was me.

"There's a side I've never seen of you, Brand." Clive's snide voice spoke. I indignantly grabbed my sweater and draped in on my forearm, and crossed my arms.

"The only time." I stated, trying to see past them. "Go find another empty compartment."

"With pleasure." Clive said, pulling her away mischievously. He's so slimy.

"Word of advice, girl. He's probably not worth it." The girl looked at me with worry and malice, an odd mixture, but Clive, without looking back pushed her on and scoffed.

"It's not from experience, is it Brand?" He called back. I sneered while his back was turned and hated him for having the last word. Not that he'd offended my pride, for that's not something that defined me, but it was just such an unfair subject to talk about _that_.

I wrapped myself in my sweater and stomped back to Ginny, Seamus, Neville and Luna, choosing not to mention this to anyone.

Most of us were asleep by lunch. I knew other than me that many didn't sleep a wink because of the excitement. But I was awake. I was thinking of my grandmother again. I was thinking of my dad at work in the ministry, probably stressing. It bugged me that he wasn't the type of person to let on what was bothering him. And my mother was the opposite, an anxious mess. She had to deal with only herself now that I was gone.

A while later, I looked at the watch strapped to Neville's wrist and it read 6 pm. It was dark outside by then. The last bits of sunlight could be seen beyond the hilly area.

Suddenly, the train came to an abrupt halt. I lurched forward into my seat, falling to the feet of Luna. She stirred in her sleep, mumbling something like, "Leave my turnips alone."

I groaned, along with my friends, as they woke.

I looked into the hallway, being the most awake. Mist was seeping along the floor. It seemed fishy enough. The black mist was pushing people out of the way who had also ventured out of their compartments. The mist was quickly running in and out of the compartments, searching. I turned the other way and another trail was encroaching. They were closing in on us. Something felt malevolent about this. Even as this was only my second time on the train, I had a feeling that this wasn't the norm.

Out of the quick thrashing mist, rose a person.

"Move aside, girlie." He said, his teeth were in heavy need of a clean, and were particularly black around the gum. More bodies rose to his sides, dressed in similar black robes.

"Why?" I whispered, probably a bit more threatening than I should have done if I wanted to live. I closed the door enough for just my head to fit through, and slid back. His foot stopped the door in its track.

A hand slid beneath my arm, and I gave it way to the opening of the door.

"STUPEFY!" I heard Neville cry. His spell had blown the door ajar, and bent it, and flung the man into the wall.

"Death Eaters!" Neville shouted. He pulled me to the ground, as a spell flew past me, and everyone else and smashed the window open.

Unbeknownst me, my friends had already posed to duel. I crawled to my seat and latched my hand to my wand, while my friends cursed and held the Death Eaters at bay. A blast sent my wand dangerously close to the range of fire at the door. Everyone was squished, attempting to make hits at such close quarters. I crawled low to the ground; sure I was out of the way and extended my hand for my wand.

"Enough!" shouted a man. The world was still and we couldn't move. "I didn't expect to see this much trouble from a lot of children." The speaker was still invisible to us, until he walked into the compartment. His supporters retreated behind him, giving him full view to us.

Awkwardly, I was still on the ground on a hand and knees, my wand safely pulled to my chest.

I looked up to the best of my ability, as I was head down. He had a tall form and strong voice. He knelt down to my eyelevel, and I could see his harsh Death Eater eyes, dark hair, and stubble face. I searched my memory hard, knowing that I wasn't too familiar with Death Eaters, but tried nonetheless. Anthony something…Dol-dolo… Antonin Dolohov! But this realization did not put my heart at ease.

"Now which one of you is Luna Lovegood?" He said lowly. He rose. Dangerously, he placed his booted foot above my hand. He put light pressure, but then suddenly tramped his foot hard, onto the back of my hand. In blindingly white-hot pain, I heard a bone in my hand snap.

"Is it you?" He asked, pointing his wand, prodding my cheek. I tried my best to say with my eyes that I wasn't.

He strode past me. "I _know_ you're the Weasley girl… tsk." I heard a crack, and a ruthless chuckle. The silence was deafening. "Look at this ridiculous girl. This must be her. Same dim-wittedness."

The Death Eaters set everything as it was before they came.

The spell was released when they had long gone. The train had restarted before that. My muscles were tense from holding position for so long, and my hand was blue from the bruise forming. I tried a mending spell, but it took several tries for the bone to set properly. We hadn't yet learned the full healing spell in Charms. I had to get Seamus to try a half decent spell.

"Don't worry, Seamus, Pompfrey couldn't do a better job." I said through gritted teeth to make him feel better. We were all in shock. Certainly everyone should have heard what had happened in the small quarrel. But no one said a thing. Maybe everyone was too scared to move or speak. In any case, the only other sound that was made was our plotting, and the popping sound of putting Ginny's shoulder back into place.

I could see my hand had healed over with a crooked bump on it, but tried not to mind it. With Death Eaters in that close of proximity, it could have been worse.

We finally arrived, and my parents were waiting. I ran out to hug them.

We took hold of Ginny and her things, and apparated home.

The smell of my mother's cinnamon scented candles filled the room. I dropped my luggage to the hardwood floor. Since we didn't have a house elf, it struck me as odd that there was noise coming from the kitchen. Pots and pans were being moved, dinner being made ready.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked as I paused.

My grandmother was standing, trying to read the label on the spaghetti box. She turned to look at me with her wise grey eyes that were glinting, and I ran to hug her.

"Early Christmas present!" She said. "And not so close to the stove, dear." She reprimanded me, and I withdrew my assault of hugs.

**like i've said many times, REVIEW! :D**

**-sage94**


	15. Chapter 15: Home

**Honestly, I love reading your reviews, they inspire me to write more :)**

Chapter 15: Home

My grandmother, much to her amazement, immediately welcomed Ginny. I was in awe of her being there, but for Ginny, not for the same reason. She had admiration for my grandmother's accomplishments, but I was just glad she was home. I was worried that I wouldn't see her again. This was the reassurance I needed to feel secure.

We ate supper in comfort, all the while talking and catching. I told my parents about the attack on the train.

"But good heavens, why would they take Luna?" My mother said, terrified. My mother was so proper; it kind of bugged me because she was only like this in front of company.

"Her father is editor of the _Quibbler._" My father said frankly.

It had never occurred to Ginny or me that her father might be the reason she was taken away. We looked at each other, alarmed. I'm sure the Death Eaters taking action in the light of day surprised everyone.

"No offense, dears," My grandmother said to me and Ginny, then faced my parents, "Why are you two concerned about Luna, when there are Death Eaters capable of accessing the Hogwarts Express?"

"That had crossed our minds, mother, but obviously we needed to be respectful of Heidi's feelings." My mother said.

"There's no time for respect, when Death Eaters won't give the wizarding world a chance to fight back. This is a weakness. We need to help the Order—" My grandmother's voice was near raised.

"Shh. Not in front of the children." My mother said.

"My parents are in the Order." Ginny piped in. I was the only one who wasn't surprised.

Later, after I had helped set Ginny in our spare bedroom, my grandma came to my room to see me.

"If I know you, you've been in more trouble then you let on to your parents." She said and sounded quite humoured.

"Maybe." I said. I yawned ready for bed. She winked at me, and kissed me goodnight on the forehead, like she used to when I was little.

"Sweet dreams, Heidi. And stay out of trouble." She left the door open just a crack, also like she used to.

The next morning, I made sure to wake up extra early enough to surprise Ginny. I made pancakes, bacon, eggs, and fruit salad _all by hand, not wand_ (a trait I picked up from my mother), for breakfast and set the table for everyone.

My mother hugged me from behind and took over my spatula duty, "Go and have fun with your friend. You've been working too hard." I had to internally snort at that. At school, I honestly did the bare minimum to get Exceeds Expectations. I guess I was glad again for my parents not being at Hogwarts.

"What do you want to do today?" She asked me, lounging back onto her guest bed.

"I dunno, I was thinking dinner and maybe going to the movies." I said, sitting beside her.

"What's a movies?" She asked,

"You've never heard of a movie before?" I asked, bewildered.

After much urging on behalf of everyone except for my father, who never much liked movies, we managed to convince Ginny that movies were good things.

"Oh, Ms. Weasley, they are terrible things. They lure you into dark caves, and the only source of light is—"

I cut my father off before Ginny figured we were lunatics. "Dad, shut up." I didn't usually swear around other people, other than my immediate family, since no one was ever around too often, so Ginny was very slightly shocked.

At the theatres, I set us up with popcorn and drinks, while Ginny clung to my elbow. I almost asked her to go grab us a seat, but she made it quite clear with her body language that she wasn't willing to move more than a few feet. Since it was winter holidays, the place was packed with people.

"Come on, let's go get a seat." I pulled her with me into the dark theatre, probably scarring her for life.

Once the movie was finished, Ginny had progressed nicely. She was no longer adhered to my arm, but her curiosity made me feel like I was talking to a toddler.

"But how did they make the movie?"

"Movie magic, Ginny." I replied calmly.

"But those were all muggles in on the screen! How did they make moving pictures?"

"Muggles are perfectly capable of taking photographs."

"But—"

"Is that you, Heidi?" I scanned my brain for a face to match this voice.

"Yeah!" I said, turning around. It was a boy, definitely my age, and had a girl on his arm. "Hey you, it's been a while." I hoped he would mention his name at some point, so I wouldn't have to sound like I didn't know him.

"Middle school, right?" He proposed.

I looked at Ginny, but she was just trying to appear polite. "…Yep. Good times…" I chuckled for show, but mind was still racing.

"Dalton was just saying how he recognized you before you walked into the theatre." The girl at his side was saying.

Dalton. Yes, I remember him. He wouldn't leave me alone in elementary school, because I accidentally did magic in school when I thought no one was looking. So I had to secretly look up a spell in my parents' library that could erase his memory. And ever since I did, he'd always been a _tad_ rude to me. Like in middle school, he would call me a witch, and other things that rhymed with that. It always made me think that maybe my Obliviate hadn't quite worked.

"You look good _now_." The girl said. And I remember her now, too. Rebecca. Maybe on another day when I was younger, I would slap her silly for the way she worded that comment. Before I was ugly?

"You too, you've outgrown your bowl cut." I chirped.

She forced a smile, and pulled Dalton tighter, which was near impossible since they were already impossibly glued together.

"So how come I don't see you at the high school anymore?" Rebecca asked scathingly.

"Oh, I'm homeschooled now…" I said, turning to Ginny.

"It's probably for the best. The normalcy would overwhelm you, Heidi." Rebecca hissed.

All the while, I noticed Dalton staring at me. I couldn't tell what his expression meant. Dalton was either very tolerable of his girlfriend's attitude, or very thick headed to not be aware of it.

After a short goodbye, we departed, and I dragged Ginny behind me.

"Ginny, don't look back at them." I told her, without looking at her.

"But!"

"No, buts." I waved my wand and we apparated into my backyard. My yard was fairly big, and the back picket fence opened to a forest.

"She was pretty nasty to you. Maybe jealous?" She suggested.

"Jealous of what?" I asked, not so sure.

"Well obviously that bloke likes you." She poked me for effect.

"Are you kidding? He's bothered me ever since we were in elementary school and… Oh no, he did like me!" I face palmed and chuckled. "I'm literally the most oblivious person. First Clive, now that guy from muggle school—"

"Shh!" She quieted me, and for the first time, we heard clattering coming from my house.

We approached the back window that viewed my kitchen. The light inside was flickering. My palms started to sweat in anticipation. Another clatter.

"Where is she?" A raised voice asked.

"She hasn't been here in over a year!" My father shouted.

"Shut it, we were asking your lovely wife." I saw my mother and father kneeling on the floor of our kitchen. The person who spoke was tall, lean, but very shabby-looking. His shoulder-length hair was a mess around him. But the way his dirty hand caressed the side of my mother's face made my skin crawl. His wand flickered towards my father, who started rolling on the floor in pain, groaning. "Now dear, where is your mother. Where is Greta Harris?"

"I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine." She spat out. My mother still kept her propriety, even in this dire situation. I wondered who these people were. Certainly not from the Ministry, judging form the attire.

"Do you have any children, Helena?" He asked. He relieved my father of the curse's bonds.

"No." I could see her visibly trembling.

I could see the man's eyes scan the dining area across the room from the kitchen.

"Watch them while we search the house." He said to a tall brutish-looking man. His muscular form towered, his head almost touched the ceiling, and his neck was covered in scars and hair, but as for the rest of him, he had on a long faded grey coat.

"Ginny, what do we do?" I whispered frantically.

"How am I supposed to know?" She whispered back. We crouched back down.

We came to the conclusion that my grandma must have left just in time, but the real question was what had prompted these people to appear all of a sudden?

"Well, I don't want them to kill my parents, so we should stay to make sure they don't and intervene if they try to kill them, okay?" I said. Even if she didn't agree, I was going to stay.

"Er, alright." Ginny said nervously.

Not a moment after she agreed, we returned to our place at the window, and the man reappeared with a smirk on his lips.

"Now what would a happy husband and wife need with a child's room, and two other spare bedrooms?"

"O-our relatives sometimes come with children." My mother lied weakly.

"It looks lived in." He stated.

I caught my father's eye. He tried to tell me to leave, trying not to draw too much attention. The man took notice and had his gang chase us.

The back door was blown off its hinges and Ginny and me were up and well on our way running to the backyard gates. A couple curses caught me at once on my back, and they had me dragged back to my house. With my remaining strength I tried to dig my fingers into the earth but I was only pulling up grass. I could see that Ginny had only succeeded in getting one leg over the fence before being shot with a body-binding curse that held her to the ground.

A few arms lifted me, and carried me into the house, depositing my body roughly to the kitchen floor on my stomach. Ginny followed an instant later and was shoved into the arms of one of the offenders.

"Mum!" Was all I could whimper.

A hand wrapped around my neck and pulled me to my knees.

"Yes, Mummy, console your daughter." He cooed. I could feel him squat behind me, and grip my neck tighter.

"I'm telling you, I don't know where she is!" My mother whined. Her bonds that I could see now wouldn't let her reach forward.

"Maybe if her daughter's on the line, Mummy will tell us where your granny is." He said in my ear, but loud enough for all to hear. I could feel his hand on my hip. It grasped the loose hem of my shirt.

"Going once." He said.

"For Godric's sake, Scabior, we don't know!" My father bellowed and tried with all his might to launch himself out of his bindings.

"That's the second time you've spoken out of turn, Brand!" The brute man said, sending my father into the cupboards. I yelped, and moved to help, but Scabior drew his wand and placed it against my hip. His breath on my neck made the hairs stand.

"Greyback!" Scabior shouted suddenly. "He was supposed to be conscious," He feigned annoyance. "Well, Mummy can watch, eh sweetheart?" He whispered in my ear.

The sick thing was that I knew what he was thinking.

He splayed me on the floor, and crushed me with his weight.

"Going twice!" He resumed his count, and his hand smoothly picked up my shirt, carefully lifting it across my stomach while my eyes watered

"Going—"

"No! She was here!" My mother sobbed.

"That's better." His pressure was relieved from me and he stood. I sighed in relief. I drew my wand quickly and sent a stunning spell at Scabior and the man holding Ginny. Ginny rose and drew her wand, skilfully knocking the only other three men and Greyback to the ground. He should have never let us go in the first place. It was over relatively quickly, since none of them drew their wands in time.

The lot of them were in a dazed pile in the dining room.

"Thank you dear." My mother said, and huffed after piling on Scabior last.

"I suppose we should obliviate them, and put them back." I murmured.

"You do it dear, I have to revive your father." My mother was oddly calm. She levitated my father upstairs back to their room, and giving another wave of her wand to set the entire house back in order.

Ginny gave one of them a prod with her shoe, and asked, "How should we obliviate them? Entirely or just this event?"

"Well, it would look suspicious if these boys were found without their entire memory. Lets try just for this evening." I said. We adjusted the Obliviate and all that was left was the scumbag Scabior. I kicked him hard in the stomach which slightly hurting my toes, and his unconscious form curled and groaned. Then I cast my spell.

My mother came back down a few minutes later, and apparated in and out of the house to drop the bodies off somewhere.

"How's dad?" I asked when all the bodies were gone.

"He's fine, a bit ill tempered, but when isn't he?" She said good-humouredly. "Listen, I wasn't really considering it earlier when you'd asked, but maybe now's a good time to go visit the Weasley's…"

**Sorry for the wait. I was in a bit of a rut. It was shitty. But now I think I got out of it, so I'm commencing the next chapter, and that hopefully wont take too long.**

**-Sage94**


	16. Chapter 16: Weasley

**I know, I know, I lied. I said I would update right after the 15th chapter was released.**

**Don't feed me to the sharks.**

Chapter 16: Weasley

It was an odd thing for my parents to let me go willingly. They must be very shocked. And who wouldn't be? I was still shaken myself. But I thought they would have wanted me to stay at home. Maybe as soon as my grandmother came back, they would argue with her and they didn't want me to see.

Whatever the case, I'm glad that Ginny had owled her family to tell him that I was coming. She apparated just outside of the house while I latched onto her arm. Her yard was very large, yet cluttered. The same went with their house. Its arrangement was warped and stacked high so that any muggle would have stood scratching their head for some time wondering how it could possibly be standing.

I readjusted my duffel bag on my shoulder. Side-along apparitions were always a little messy for me. She watched me stare at her house, and from the corner of my eye I could see the concern. I couldn't see why, the house was pretty cool.

"Let's go inside, shall we?" I encouraged.

"Yeah, but ignore my brothers. You met them before, but have never seen them in their natural habitat."

"If they're anything like you in your habitude, then they should be manageable." I quipped.

She side-shoved me as we approached her house. She opened the door and shouted our arrival, "We're home. Everyone _appear_ normal for Heidi."

"Aha, there's really no need, Gin." I assured her. We kicked the snow off of our shoes and unbuttoned our jackets.

A woman, who I assumed to be Ginny's mother walked around the corner, "Welcome, deary." She shook my hand and smiled warmly and took our coats graciously.

"It's a pleasure to be here, Mrs. Weasley." I smiled back.

"Ah, Ms. Brand lovely to meet you." Came a voice from their living room. Ginny's father did not look up, but was reading the _Daily Prophet_.

"Oh, hello Mr. Weasley." I called back across the room.

"Please call me Arthur." He said plainly, clearly pre-occupied. It was kind of funny. I saw Ginny sigh, and Mrs. Weasley raise her eyebrows at her husband. Perhaps she found him rude, but my father was similar so I really didn't mind.

"Well at least my brothers haven't unleashed themselves onto you yet." Ginny grumbled while we headed further into her house.

"Wait… what?" I was curious of the wording.

"Shit—I meant they're not bothering you yet." She amended.

"Give her the spare room!" Mrs. Weasley shouted up to us, saving Ginny by changing the subject.

Ginny sighed, and looked upstairs.

"You'll be at the top Heidi." Ginny said as we stopped at the first floor. "But I'll show you my room anyways."

Her room was small and cosy, with a couple posters of her favourite team, the Holyhead Harpies; and I could definitely see where sleeping in here would be a problem.

"I just wish mum would shift the twins upstairs or something so that we could at least be closer to each other."

"I don't mind. I guess it's good exercise." I said, trying to make light of the situation.

She took me upstairs to the top, and I was huffing, steadying my upper body on my knees and trying to hold my duffel bag.

"Is this Ron's room?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I guess the ghoul took over for a bit."

"You have a ghoul?" I asked sceptically.

"Well Ron couldn't very well just disappear with Harry and Hermione without having a backup plan. So the ghoul is Ron with Spattergoit."

"Right, right, the ministry would be all over you guys."

"They already are…" Ginny snorted wryly. "Here we are." She opened Ron's door, and showed me into his room. The bed was made and the room had a colder feel than the rest of the house. Everything looked untouched; I didn't want to disturb it. But I pushed through that feeling and set my bags down and sat on the springy bed.

"The ghoul won't bother me, will it?" I asked as I heard banging in the attic above me.

"He should be fine. But then again, I can't be too sure, because he hasn't seen too many guests." Ginny winked at me, enjoying my distress.

Soon enough Mrs. Weasley had the table set, and had managed to round up all of her children. I sat beside Fred and Charlie, and across from Ginny and her mother, while Mr. Weasley sat at the head across from George. I looked down at our plates. So they were a meat and potatoes kind of family…

We sat in silence for a bit and I could see everyone exchanging glances over the table, not certain of how to act in front of me. I wish I could tell them that they could act normally, to not hold back, but I held too much sadistic pleasure watching them squirm in their seats. I chewed my food quietly, the steak was a little on the well done side. Yeah, okay, I'm picky.

Everyone finished and kind of pretended to not watch me eat, since I was a slow eater. Finally, I set my fork down, and finished the last of my water as well.

Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat, "So Heidi, I know your parents were sceptical about sending you over…" She stated. I know she tried to not sound offended, which I could appreciate.

"Yeah, no its just an attachment issue I guess. You know, only child and all." I said apologetically.

"I know, but it was very sudden, I wasn't sure you were going to make it down." She said concerned.

"Well originally I wasn't going to come, what with the times and all…" I said slowly; I was sure I had their attention, "But l-last night we had gone to the movies, and ran into a couple friends from Muggle School."

"You've done it now." Fred whispered in my ear.

"Done what?" I murmured.

"You went to Muggle school!" Mr. Weasley asked and leaned in closer over the table.

"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley cried.

"Sorry Molly." He amended. "So, Heidi, you say you went to the _movies_?" He asked quietly. I saw the table move a bit and Mr. Weasley's face wrinkled in pain and he sucked in air and he pushed his chair slightly away from the table. I gazed at Mrs. Weasley who had an irritated expression that I found comical. The infamous under the table kick executed perfectly.

"Don't mind Dad, Heidi." Charlie said, smirking. I found him to be quite amusing, but much more mature than the twins, sort of like Ginny. And I noticed Mrs. Weasley kept eyeing his long hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. My mother got the same way when I let my hair grow in the summer. Poor soul's hair won't last too much longer.

"So dear, you were explaining?" Mrs. Weasley ushered me to continue.

"Well while I was away, some people—oh geez, what were they called…" I wondered aloud.

"Snatchers." Ginny confirmed.

"Yeah, when we came back they had my mum and dad in the kitchen and were questioning them." I said soberly.

"Well, why did they show up?" George asked bluntly.

"Because my gran is a muggleborn."

"Sorry, I meant _how._" He asked again.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well Snatchers don't just come around for no reason, do they?" Charlie said.

"But they were looking for a fugitive, right?" I said.

"Yeah, but didn't you say they had already done a home search during the school year?" Ginny asked me.

"Yeah, but they do those all the time, right?"

"Not Snatchers, Heidi. Ministry officials." Arthur said, "By the way, you didn't happen to catch who they were, did you?"

I looked at Ginny. She nodded her concurrence. "Greyback was there. And some other blokes." I tried to push back the images of Scabior.

It was silent for a bit as that information sunk in. I could feel both Weasleys on either side of me in this cramped dining area tense up.

"Perhaps they fell for the taboo." Charlie suggested after the tension receded.

"The taboo?" I asked.

"Have you been living under a rock?" Fred asked amused. I elbowed him.

"Fred, don't be rude." Molly said.

"Well I suppose it's not something they'd advertise widely, especially since they're trying to catch all the people who're saying his name." Charlie said.

"Whose name?" I asked, kind of getting annoyed by the back and forth. It was worse than watching those muggles who play tennis.

I was ignored. "Yeah, like how they tried to cover up Harry's appearance at the Ministry back in the fall!" Said George.

"Hold on, Harry was at the Ministry? When? Why didn't anyone tell me?" Ginny asked.

"We couldn't very well put something like that in a letter with the surveillance we're under. You're lucky they're letting you in Hogwarts at all." Molly said.

"Nobody tells me anything." She cried.

George made some terrible impression of her that caused all the sons to erupt in laughter; even I had to hold back a snort. I suppose the figurative ice has been broken.

"Whose name?" I repeated. Everyone was still laughing. "Whose name!" I tried to shout over them but sighed in defeat. I decided I could live with one evening without finding out, because I was thoroughly overwhelmed by them. I suppose in a good way, because they amused me so.

The table settled down by bringing in some desert. Ice cream and sticky pudding.

"Oh, Mrs. Weasley, I couldn't possibly." I said, ever so slightly pulling away from the table.

"Nonsense dear, you could do with some fattening up." I looked down self-consciously down at my stomach, which was I guess sort of flat, but it was tightly packed with food. I could hear Fred giggle beside me. I looked up and Ginny gave me a look that said her mum would never give up.

"You're right, I guess." I said slowly and just dug into the huge bowl with my spoon.

By the end of it, I was determined never to follow that kind of advice from Mrs. Weasley again, because I could really use a lie down and never wake up.

I said my goodnights, for it was already ten o'clock. Everyone left before us to go back to whatever they were doing. I was too full to really notice.

"You look tired." Ginny said.

I nodded sleepily, "What gave you that idea?"

She smiled at my sarcasm, "Aha, well I'll see you tomorrow morning then, sleepyhead." I could tell she was hoping I would stay awake until the crack of dawn with her, which I was not opposed to at any other time except now.

"G'night." I yawned and ascended the stairs. All six flights of them.

The moment I let myself fall onto the bed, I was out like a light.

My sleep was pretty restless; every now and then I would hear footsteps above my head, and the banging of pipes from that rascally ghoul. I sat up, and dug through my bags for my watch. It was only one o'clock. A moment later, I cursed myself for falling asleep in my clothes.

I changed into some sweats and a loose top, and tried to fall back asleep. I flicked on the bedside lamp, and sat up, frustrated. I paced the room, and kept trying to tell myself that it was because I ate too much that I was awake and uncomfortable. Not the house. Ginny would be devastated. I could imagine me leaving because I had the inability of sucking it up and Ginny's crestfallen face. And Ginny would have the embarrassment of having a diva for a friend.

I sat on the floor beside the bed with my face in my hands.

Suddenly I heard a small popping sound. I couldn't help but scream, especially since it was the middle of the night.

"Whoa! Shh, shh!" The boy tried to calm me but I back myself up on the bed against the wall.

I cocked my head in confusion, but I remembered who was standing in front of me.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered to him. But it was of little use, because I could hear movement below us, and the creaking of stairs.

"I should ask _you_ that! This is _my_ room." Ron whispered back. He backed away as well, unsure of what to do. Did Mrs. Weasley know he's here?

The door burst open and Molly and Arthur stood wide-eyed.

"Ron? What are you doing here?" She shouted. Well that answered my question. Ron froze at the question and started blubbering.

I saw the twins arrive behind their parents, and Charlie and Ginny showed themselves in too. Your opinion of someone is kind of staggered once you see them in their pyjamas. I lowered myself out of my standing position on the bed before they could get over the sight of Ron. Everyone started having their own little debates, not sure of what to make of Ron being home when he was supposed to be out doing whatever they were supposed to be doing.

"Enough." Arthur said, just loud enough for everyone to hush. "We have a guest here, and I'd think we'd all like to go to bed."

I gave him a thankful look, and he winked, obviously the only one conscious of my bewildered state.

"Fred. George. Set up the camp bed in Ginny's room for Heidi." Arthur said. And with that, he turned on his heel and went down the stairs. Molly took another look at her son and followed suite.

The twins left as well, and Ginny urged me to follow her. "Sorry about that." I mumbled as a goodbye to Ron. He seemed nice.

**Review, please!**

**-Sage94**


	17. Chapter 17: Reminder

Chapter 17: Reminder

The first day in their house was really quiet because of Ron. All the energy they had last night was gone; all that was left was solemn silence, especially when the family approached the staircase. They would look all the way upstairs to see if Ron would come down.

Mrs. Weasley seemed happy though, to have her son back. Maybe this was how she normally acted, but she would hum while she cleaned and cooked (which was a surprising amount). Even my _entire_ extended family didn't bake these much goods.

"When will she stop to realize that Ron's abandoning them?" Ginny asked to no one in particular.

"Dad said that mum's too preoccupied with him actually being home. So she can keep an eye on him. _I_ want to know how long he's been coming here." Charlie said.

We were all in the sitting room, watching Molly Weasley work her little heart out for a dinner roast she probably expected Ron to come down and eat.

"For ten galleons, I say he won't grace us with his presence for supper." Fred said, digging his hand into his sweater pocket.

"It's Ron you're talking about. The bottomless pit." Ginny reminded. Everyone murmured in accordance, which I thought to be hilarious.

While Mrs. Weasley was perfecting her December the twenty-third dinner for Ron, she said something, "Why don't you all take Ron out for a nice afternoon on the town, while I cook supper?"

"Because he's supposed to be on his deathbed." All four Weasleys said.

"Nothing a small transfiguration charm won't fix." She said, busying herself again.

They sat for a moment running this idea through their minds before they all agreed: "No."

"You'll have to pitch in some change for a butterbeer or two." George said.

Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips for a moment, before sighing. "Touché. Money's in the cupboard boys."

Amusingly enough, the twins had managed to drag along Ron, who had been configured into losing his freckles and red hair, which was turned to black.

"There, now you're Heidi's brother!" George said, admiring his handy work.

"I look like a joke. My skin is even pastier." Ron grumbled.

"Hey!" I grumbled. I couldn't help but be offended.

"Well you're a _natural_ brunette. I'm…" He was at a loss for words, while he was looking at his reflection in front of the sitting room mirror.

"The Leaky Cauldron it is!" George exclaimed, pulling Ron away from his reflection, and ignoring his sulking.

When we arrived, it was as I remembered it form earlier visits, perhaps a little darker, but none too different. We took a table at the back corner, and Charlie left to get us drinks. He came back and I took my butterbeer gratefully.

"Oh, come on Charlie, liven them up a little!" Fred gestured to Ginny's butterbeers and mine.

"Fred, she's my sister."

"Mum's not here. And we all know Ginny's had her fair share of alcohol." Ron said plainly.

"She'll be hell in the morning." Charlie said. He took his own flask and downed it in one gulp. "Alright girls, a round of Firewhisky."

The twins patted him on the back, and he went to go ask for a bottle and some flasks. When he returned he set them animatedly in front of Ginny and me. He poured them for the both of us, and Ginny grabbed hers eagerly, taking a mouthful. I stared at my full glass and tilted my head. My smug grin from Charlie being persuaded into getting drinks for us faded slightly as I realized something.

"Go on Heidi," Fred put a friendly arm around my shoulder and pushed the glass closer to me.

"Right, right." I said quickly, taking it in my hand. I could feel sweat beads starting to build up on my nose, and before anyone else could notice my bout of nervousness, I took a gulp of the liquid. I immediately wished I hadn't. My mouth was on fire, and I struggled to get the spicy drink down my throat. When it went down, I instantly started to cough. Fred took his arm from around my shoulder and started to pat my back.

George eyed me carefully from across the table. "You sure you've done this before, Brand?"

"Yeah, of course." I cleared my voice, and mistakenly tried to take another drink to seem convincing. I struggled again to get the blasted drink down my oesophagus.

The whole table erupted in laughter at my expense. I hung my head in mock shame. "So what?" I said. This only amused them more.

"Honestly, at all our parties, you never once had a drink?" Ginny said to me. I shook my head no.

"Ginny! Partying at school? Tsk." George feigned scorn.

She stared blatantly at him. "Right."

"Well cheers to her first drink!" Fred said, and chugged his own.

Later on, when I felt more than a slight tingle from the alcohol, I realized how much I drank. Steadily, before I reached this hopeless point, I had taken many sips of the Firewhisky that I added up to about three shot glasses.

"So, Ron, is there anything you want to tell us about your little adventures?" George said, poking him in the shoulder.

Ron became serious, "I told you before I left, I'm sworn to secrecy."

"Mum's not around, the Order's not around, the ministry's not around, mum's not around…" Fred listed humorously.

"_She's_ here." I heard him mutter to Fred, and I hoped that it wasn't against my character. I also hoped that I wasn't meant to hear it either.

"She's _trustworthy_." Fred whispered brightly, and yet again, I pretended not to hear and sipped my drink.

"You just think she's—" Ron was cut off.

"Boys, boys." Charlie calmed them down.

"Anyways, there's no way I would tell you." Ron snorted and took another drink. "So what's happening with the order?" Ron asked, leaning into our table.

Personally, I'd never quite gotten the gist of what was happening with the order, so I was actually quite excited to listen in.

"Well, the next meeting is tomorrow night at Tonks' house. Mum was thinking about leaving you here though, Gin."

"Oh come on, I'm practically a member." Ginny said, clumsily crossing her arms.

"Mum barely wanted you going to school, let alone letting you join the most sought after underground society in Britain." George said, slightly slurring, but still making sense. In any case, Ginny never told me she almost wasn't allowed. It could have been like we'd never met.

"Me and Heidi are going to that meeting." Ginny said determined. I grinned at the thought. Actually helping out the Order.

By twelve, we had had more than a few _more_ rounds.

"Heidi, how long are you staying?" Fred asked. I snapped out of my stupor, and turned to Fred. His question was probably more intense than needed.

"Hopefully before the year is out, why?" I asked in return.

"Well, I was thinking since you're not staying long, you'd totally be up for getting wasted."

I snorted. "Right." Like I already wasn't. "I'd sooner get out of trouble at school." What with Snape on my tail.

"Ah, good to see my sister's left an impression on you." He said. As if on cue, we looked over at Ginny, who took her shot in one go. Classy as always.

"Well what with the DA and our conversations about Vol—"

As Fred pounced on me roughly, I'm not sure why, "—demort."

A thunderous crack echoed the room, and Fred had tackled me to the floor.

They had apparated closest to Tom, at the bar, I could see their feet from the floor. My stomach churned and I kept whispering 'sorry' to Fred. Tears were threatening to spill from my eyes. Of course I should have realized whose name had been tabooed.

"Charlie, get Ron and Ginny out of here." Fred whispered forcefully. They apparated silently away. The small pop alerted the small group and they marched over to us on the floor.

"Oi, you two, on your feet!" A gruff voice called.

Fred was pulled off of me. His hair was brown and eyes were green. The genius had transfigured his appearance. I was pulled up shortly after.

"Which one of you done it?" I stared into the face of Greyback. Nausea swept through me once more. "You?" His finger jabbed into Fred's chest, and Fred struggled himself to get loose, but the goon holding him had a tight grip. "Or was it you, girlie?"

"Be gentle, Greyback." Looming behind him was the man from my kitchen. What were the odds it would be Scabior and Greyback once more?

Greyback pushed my back into a wall, and approached Fred. "I bet my wand it was you."

"On that note." Scabior, that swine snapped his fingers and had our wands confiscated. "You can have those back once you answer these few questions correctly."

Greyback was still eyeing Fred with suspicion. "So boy, _was_ it you?" I could see a stuttered response forming on his lips.

"It was me." I said shakily. I internally slapped myself. Why would I do that for him?

All eyes snapped to me, making shrink into the wall.

"I guess you owe me your wand then, eh Greyback?" Fred quipped. I squished my eyes closed as I heard a punch make contact with Fred. He still chuckled.

"Release the boy, we have what the miscreant want."

Scabior gripped my arm, and we quickly apparated away.

"Fuck!" I muttered. Shit, shit, shit.

"Watch your tongue," the man whispered. He dropped me to the floor, which was black, clean, and especially cold marble.

My body wracked a couple of dry and silent sobs. "Where are we?" I managed to say. I winced as I realized my words were slightly slurred.

"The Ministry of Magic." Greyback hoarse voice spoke.

I rolled onto my side and took a second to recuperate and went to stand. Scabior's foot kicked me mid-rise, and I spluttered to the ground. I was on my back glaring at him.

"We can't have that," He smiled sadistically. "She's coming."

I was about to ask whom, but I heard short and quick steps echoing far down the hallway. They clicked against the marble, with no one yet in sight, further prolonging my suspense.

I wrinkled my face, as I saw a short and stout woman round the corner far across the atrium. Two thickset men in suits followed her, along with a single Dementor. My heart seemed to weigh me down.

In my near drunken state, I crawled back to Scabior and Greyback's feet.

"_Scabior_, that's the twelfth this month, you're doing well." Her high, clear and pretentious voice rang through the grand hall. Though it held a disgusted tone even saying the man's name.

"Thank you mam." I heard the werewolf grunt at the lack of recognition.

"Where did you find _this_ one?" She said.

"Just at the Leaky Cauldron."

She giggled and pointed her wand at me. "What is your name dear?"

"Brand." I muttered.

"What is a young girl like you saying such nasty things?" She cooed.

"Well, I—"

"_Crucio_." She said.

I arched my back, head smacking into the floor, screaming. Hardly thinking, except the pain. She released the spell, and I sank to the floor, my muscles still tense.

"Continue." Her perky voice made me gag.

"We were just fooling around."

"Lies." She hissed.

"We were! Put your wand down!" I snapped. "My boyfriend and I were drunk and he dared me. W didn't know this would happen!"

"Get the Brands' files."

One of the men behind her, holding a binder, sifted through and pulled up a portfolio.

"Any relation to Helena Brand?" The woman said after being given the short yellow portfolio.

"She's my mother." I said warily.

"Tsk. Your maternal _grandmother_ is somewhere among our undesirables list."

"I know. She's missing." I lied.

"Do you know who I am, child?" She switched her footing.

I gazed up at her form lazily. "No, mam."

"I am Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary for _the_ Minister."

My eyes widened, of course, I should have recognized her from the stories I'd heard at school.

"So you _have_ heard of me." Her ugly toady face grinned evilly, and she looked back down at my file. "And you're attending Hogwarts. You know, I'm also the High Inquisitor for Hogwarts."

I massaged my forehead; I knew this wouldn't go well. I already had it in with Snape.

"Your story is plausible, your family is already under watch, and you've never had an offence before. We'll send you home with a ministry official. After all, you're only a child, but first…" She tapped her little pink kitten heels, seemingly forgetting something. "…A little parting reminder."

"_Crucio_." I writhed on the floor once more, this curse being more forceful. I felt the sweat pour on my face. My muscles felt like they were ripping one by one, and my skin peeling off of me. I tried to relieve myself of pain by screaming louder, but the pain kept driving in.

The Crucio stopped abruptly and all who were left in the atrium was Scabior and Greyback, the _ministry officials,_ and I. Greyback pulled me up by my hair, and sniffed my neck, and I could barely push him away.

"If only this one was older." Scabior said. We all apparated

"Nobody has to know." Greyback said to the both of us.

"N-no." Sobs wracked my body once more, and I was almost too spent to punch his hard chest with my fists.

"Relax sweetheart. Maybe if you're naughty again we'll have the chance." Scabior traced my cheek, and dropped me on my doorstep.

They apparated away and left me to gather myself.

**So I tried to control this chapter as best as I could, but it just kept wanting me to go this way. Anyways, imma put her back on track, back to a certain Weasley ;) **

**-sage**

**aaaaannnd, sorry I took so goddamn long. Ugh, chemistry is getting in my way.**


	18. Chapter 18: Order

**Don't forget to review when you get to the bottom ;)**

Chapter 18: Order

I couldn't bear going back inside to my own home; just the fact that they knew where I lived creeped me out beyond belief. I sat myself up, but not without sinking back down a couple times from the lasting pains of the Cruciatus curse. Umbridge was sick.

I tried remembering where Ginny said she lived, so I could apparate there. I pulled my wand from my forearm sleeve, and with a crack, apparated away.

I felt my face hit the ground before the rest of me, thanks to my clumsy early morning skills. The air was really chilly, and I could feel the snow seep under my clothes.

"Ow." I said to myself. I rolled onto my back, and saw around me were harvested corn crops, covered in snow. In the distance I could see a house, as impossible as it was the last time I saw it. Ginny's house.

I stood as best as I could, but found I couldn't continue. I shot up a red flare from my wand, hoping someone was watching. I collapsed back into the snow.

Within what felt like seconds later, I was awake in Ginny's familiar home with people huddled around me.

"Are you alright?" Molly Weasley asked, her warm palm caressing my face.

"Super." I said dryly.

Everyone gave a relieved chuckle, and backed off of me a little.

"How did you get away?" Ginny asked excitedly. Her mother slapped her arm, but I won't blame her for her amazement.

"I didn't. They let me go." I snuck a quick glance at Fred, and he was looking downward in what seemed to be anger.

"They let you go?" Bill asked. His forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"Yeah. Not without a warning though." A flash of the pain came to me in remembrance.

I saw all who were with me run a hand over their heads in relief. "Thank Merlin." George said.

I looked around the room though, and couldn't place what was missing. Everything seemed to be in order. I looked around, and realized Ron wasn't down here with the rest of his family.

"You'll be safer here, Heidi. We don't want any more trouble this early in the morning." Mr. Weasley said calmly, and everyone went quiet when he spoke. I personally think he was anxious to contact my parents.

When everyone except Fred cleared away, reluctantly albeit—I knew I'd be getting more questions in the morning—I relaxed in my chair.

"Are you _really_ alright?" He asked quietly.

"I'll be fine." I rose from my chair, and paid extra care to not fall over.

His eyes narrowed a bit, before softening. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault. I was just stupid." I seriously was. I mean, to find out whose name was tabooed the hard way…

"Still. I have to say I'm impressed. You came out unscathed."

"Basically." I winked, but my body didn't feel like it was ready for humour.

"How did you do it? I mean, what happened?"

I was seriously considering telling him, but I didn't have much energy. Plus I must have smelled like alcohol. I'm lucky his parents are forgiving. I hadn't even asked yet, about how coming home without me must have made them feel. I suppose it could be worse.

"Talk to me first thing tomorrow." I promised him. I was going to crash in Ginny's room, now that Ron was here, but first I needed to go get my stuff from his room. That could prove to be awkward. "Oh, and I'm never getting drunk with you Weasleys again." I said, as we made our way upstairs.

He rolled his eyes at me, "You don't need me to help you up all those stairs?" he changed the subject.

"I'll be fine. I think I proved I can fight for myself." I said it wryly, but I hoped I didn't offend him that much.

He laughed and entered his bedroom, and I continued on upstairs. I knocked on Ron's door, and I could hear his shuffling feet inside. I opened the door, and he sat quickly on his bed.

"Sorry, I'm just grabbing my stuff." I said awkwardly, striding over to my things. He must have piled all my stuff in the far corner.

"S'okay." If it weren't so silent, I swear I would have missed the smallest of sniffles.

I had all my things in my arms, and was at the door, ready to leave without a second thought. But something about a six-foot teddy bear holding back tears made me hesitate.

"Ron, were you—were you crying?" It was dark in this room, so I could hardly see his face.

"What? No." I think maybe he was offended that I would think such a thing.

"Are you sure?" I was ready to put my stuff down.

"Who are you?" He asked suddenly. What was with people answering questions with questions?

"Weren't we already introduced? I'm Heidi Brand." I said, trying to make nothing of it, because _I_ wasn't the one crying. I came to sit on the floor beside his bed.

"No, I mean, what are you doing here?" I heard him click something, but it was too dark to see. I really hated when people fiddled with things rather than pay attention to you. Except in class, that was understandable.

"I'm visiting for holidays." He clicked it again.

"If tonight wasn't a sign, you shouldn't be here." He didn't sound rude, but instead matter-of-fact. "We're not the best people to make friends with." I didn't really feel like saying it was my fault.

I ignored that. "Was that about Harry and Hermione?" He knew I was talking about his crying, from the silence that followed. "If you feel so bad, why don't you go find them?"

He clicked that damn thing in his hands one last time with finality. "Because I don't know where they are." He said bluntly. I half-expected him to raise his voice, but he managed to keep it to our hushed tone.

"Damn it Ron, what is that in your hands." He clicked the thing open loudly and the light on his bedside table turned on. "Whoa."

"I know." He was calm again, staring at his light.

"What is that?"

"A Deluminator." He flicked it closed and the light went out.

"What does it do?"

"It captures the light, I guess." He lay back onto his bed, and my eyes finally adjusted to the night and I could see his outlined form.

"Can I see it?" I asked.

He was quick to answer, "No." it made me jump in surprise.

"Oh, sorry." I amended with worry that I offended him.

"No, no. It's okay. It's just, er, it was a gift."

"Oh, that must have been nice of your parents."

"It was Dumbledore's." He said softly.

"Dumbledore." I was in disbelief. That was truly impressive. "Can you do that trick again?"

"Alright, one last time." He was just as excited to show it off as explain it to me. He clicked it open again, but the light didn't go to the lamp. It floated midair, as a bluish white orb.

"Cool." I managed to say. The orb, though, started to move. "Does it usually do that?"

"No." His face was mesmerized, just as mine.

Quickly, it whizzed around, and suddenly, hit me in the head, knocking me to sleep.

When I woke up, it was in Ron's room, on his floor. It must have been early morning and the room was empty. I don't think I was dreaming, when his Deluminator hit my head. I remember the odd sensation, not feeling quite like a bat to the skull, but a force nonetheless.

His bed was made, and still held the imprint from where he sat last, which I found odd. Since I know I caught him coming home, which he did before I came, maybe he was just gone during the day.

I got up, though, and saw none of his things anywhere. Last night, his still packed bags had littered the floor, and now it was bare, save for my things. Still, I wanted to check.

"Ron?" I called loudly. I ran all the way downstairs, calling his name, with no answer. Well, this will be difficult to explain.

A few hours later I could see that Mrs. Weasley was not taking this information lightly. Her eyes were watery, and she would mention how now she only had Ginny.

"Oh cheer up mum, in a few months—"

"He'll be back, and You-Know-Who will be gone for good." Fred finished for George quite optimistically.

I don't think their condolences were of any help, because Mrs. Weasley only moped around more, saying how she didn't want her son to be out in these dark times, battling dark forces no less. I couldn't blame her, especially since they have no idea what Harry, Ron and Hermione are doing out there.

In the midst of their sorrow, I happened to realize this probably later than usual for this time of year. It was Christmas Eve. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why Mrs. Weasley was upset; Ron wasn't here for the holidays. I wondered how _my_ parents were faring, since I wasn't there either. I suppose they weren't in the know. I probably should tell them about what happened early this morning, but I couldn't bear seeing their faces. They were already too scared for being forced to put me in school, the ministry, my grandmother, and now the Dark Lord in his rise to power, but to be afraid for me _even_ more… Knowing them, something drastic would happen, they would go to unnecessary lengths to get us away from London, the Ministry, and probably jeopardize our family, when I could manage if I lay low.

But I have a feeling things won't go well, not while I'm here with Ginny. Not that it's anything against her, but because I know I won't be able to help myself while surrounded by the sense of righteousness that encircles her family.

"Ginny, are we doing anything special tonight?" I asked quietly, careful to not really catch the attention of the rest of her family. It was nice and calm for now.

"Well, tonight we're going to…" Ginny thought for a bit.

"An undisclosed location." Charlie said. I didn't think anyone could hear us.

"Can Heidi come?" Ginny asked out loud.

"Might be dangerous. Look what she's caused." George said, ruffling my hair.

"I resent that." I said it jokingly, but it was still a little slighting.

"How old are you, Heidi?" Mr. Weasley asked from his chair in the living room.

"Seventeen." I said nonchalantly.

"Please dad, she's of age already." Ginny, went to his side. Daddy's girl.

"It's not a matter of age, it's a matter of trust." Charlie said, as if that should have been clear, which I could understand.

"She's trustworthy." Ginny pleaded.

"I _am_ trustworthy." I smiled cheekily.

"This is Order business, not a tea party, Ginny. Not that I think you're a joke, Heidi." Fred said.

"Says _Fred_." I commented, omitting several chuckles around the room.

"She can come." Mr. Weasley said all of a sudden. He was reading over the _Daily Prophet_, but I knew he was paying attention.

"You're kidding? It took you like months to decide if we could!" George exclaimed.

"And look what's happened to your ear." Charlie said.

"She's of age, and if she's interested, then more alliances for the Order." Mr. Weasley boomed over our bantering. It wasn't angry, just commanding, like he was a little impatient with his sons and daughter.

I nodded appreciatively. However I knew my parents would have trouble understanding this. Maybe I wouldn't tell them about last night, but I would definitely ask them to consider the Order.

That evening, we had a nice quiet dinner, with just the Weasleys and I, minus Bill and Fleur, Ron, and of course the one boy, Percy. Ginny only ever mentioned him once, but never made anything of him. I only grabbed a few things like my wand, a Sherlock Holmes book, and an extra sweater, for our trip to Tonk's house. Or Andromeda's house.

Merlin, I'm about to go to see the Order of the Phoenix.

* * *

**Kay, so I'm extra sorry about not updating in a while… blame school and lack of imagination :P I guess you could say I got my "groove" back lol…**

**Yeah, I know I'm lame.**

**Oh, and… PLEASE REVIEW!**

-**Sage94**


	19. Chapter 19: Letter

Chapter 19: Letter

When I woke up, it certainly didn't feel like it was supposed to be Christmas day. I held that day in higher regards, but there were so many things different about this holiday. It was early, and still dark, but I could see snow falling hard and thick. I was back to sleeping in Ron's room, but it was creepy there, almost like taking the room of a dead person, though I wouldn't admit that to anyone in this house.

Even though it was early, I could hear movement downstairs. Like mine, other families couldn't wait to open up gifts. I made my way downstairs when the sky was a little lighter. It was, after all, _their_ Christmas morning. When I stood at the foot of the stairs, I watched them enjoy opening the gifts they had. They weren't very large, but small and endearing. Oh, and Mrs. Weasley handed out sweaters with their first initial on them, which was cute.

I finally said, "Hi guys."

"Oh, Heidi!" Ginny called. "Your mother owled some gifts." I briefly wondered if the Weasleys were so heavily watched, how an owl could make through to them.

I gave the odd box a look. It was moderately sized, and could probably fit a small loaf of bread. Don't ask me why I thought of bread.

"This is from my mum?" I wondered aloud.

"No, dear, it's from us, we just figured it's the very least we could do after all you've gone through." At Mrs. Weasley's words, I popped the wrapping off gently, careful not to rip too loudly, pleasantly surprised to be getting gifts from people other than my parents.

I was a charming blue knitted sweater with the letter 'H' on the front in a nice blue. "Oh, it's lovely, Molly." I commented. I put down the box, and held up the sweater in front of my face, so I couldn't see them. I'd never actually gotten many gifts from my parents, even though I was an only child. Sure, I didn't mind, because most things I wanted I would buy, which were very few, and I didn't need much. But it made me feel warm to receive a gift from other people.

I immediately put on the sweater, which was cozy and maybe a little itchy, but nothing I couldn't handle. It also bagged a little, to my liking. I could see the Weasley kids all looking at me incredulously. I looked down at myself. Was it the sweater? Or what? I decided to shrug it off for now, and ask Ginny later.

I was finally handed my parents' gift, which was wrapped neatly in silver paper with a prim blue ribbon on top. Like I've said before, I don't usually get stuff that I "want" per se, but I generally get nice things. Anyways, not complaining. I opened the parcel, and inside was—well, I wasn't sure _what_ it was exactly. It was a piece of parchment on top of a box; the page was a signed contract, with both my parents' signature.

I realized it was their death note. No, maybe not literally, but it was a confirmation. They must have contacted someone, because the print summarized their consent to join the Order of the Phoenix. My heart skipped a beat, knowing that life was about to be that much harder. With a strange feeling of foreboding, I leaned forward and placed the page on top of Mr. Weasley's lap, whom I was sitting closest to.

Now, for the box: After the previous 'gift', I wasn't too sure what I would get next, but I had a feeling it couldn't be any worse. I slipped of the lid, and inside was a crystal bottle, like where someone would put perfume. Inside was a small slip of paper that read, '_when one needs their thoughts most.'_

Oh god, I hope this is for what I think it's for. It is. It was a small and portable thought container for starters. Especially since I've recently been working on trying to put my thoughts into a pensieve. It was always a feat for me. I felt happy that they would give me one; especially since I haven't exactly told them it was something that I wanted. When I pushed the cap of the metal nozzle, it whizzed and transformed into a flat bowl with vials lining the outside. I smiled to myself, while Ginny came to my side to marvel, and I grasped both sides of the bowl, and it suddenly collapsed back into a small perfume bottle.

When we had all our stuff together by nine, a wisp of silvery-white and blue patronus came through the kitchen window.

'_The meeting location has been changed to Bill and Fleur's shell cottage.'_ The silver lynx said.

I saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley look at each other with concern written on their faces. Was change of plans that bad?

We disapparated and wound up on a beach, damp with the tide. I looked all around, and it was calm, but eerie at the same time.

"Where exactly are we?"

"Shell Cottage." Mr. Weasley said, even though he knew I wanted to know more.

We approached the quaint and charming house that sat along the water. We looked a long ways away from everything.

As we entered, I could feel the atmosphere, and it was chillier than outside. Everyone sitting inside was shrouded in gray, with depressed eyes looking at us standing in the door.

A man walked down the stairs and finally managed to greet us all with some warmth. He was very shabby looking, and had greying hair, with scars scoring his otherwise kind face.

"Remus." Mr. Weasley nodded.

"Arthur." They hugged each other with one arm, and Mr. Weasley set his things on the ground.

"And who is this?" Remus said, but I could tell he was making an enormous effort to sound welcoming.

"This is the Brand's only child. You know, Helena and Rick."

"Rick? I didn't know he had children." Remus stared pointedly at me, eyeing curiously.

"Yup." I said, and nodded with embarrassment. I knew he didn't mean to stare.

Remus turned his full body to face me; "I went to school with your father." And he held his hand out for me to shake.

"That's nice." I'd only heard of Remus a little from Ginny's stories.

"Now that she is of age, she has elected to join the order." Charlie said from my right and placed a supportive hand on my shoulder.

"Another member? Brilliant!" I peered around Remus, to see a girl with blue-gray hair, and a rather swollen belly. Her pregnant waddle had Remus rushing over to help her towards us. "I'm fine, Remus." She said defiantly. He backed off a little, but didn't move very far, and kept a conscious eye on her.

"Not just one." I reminded.

Mr. Weasley jumped in, "Yes, her mother and father have agreed to join as well."

"Wonderful, shall we start then, now that you've arrived?" She asked. "Oh, I'm Tonks, by the way," She added brightly.

At first, they spoke about roles. This person was following Aurors, another person was watching for snatchers, etcetera. Then when they brought up a radio station.

"We need more reporters, if you're up to it, Heidi." Fred supplied me.

"Well, maybe after I graduate, but I'd be glad to wait." We were talking aside while everyone else spoke about what subjects to broadcast next week. "So, where _do you _broadcast from?" I asked.

"It changes, but from time to time it's at our shop. Officials have ruled us out of being a threat apparently. Something to do with our products." Fred said truthfully wondering.

"I would think that your products _would_ make you a prime suspect."

"They're more scared than anything. And hey, it keeps them at bay." He said jokingly, while entering further into the cottage. While it was small, probably only meant for a couple, it was packed with people, all conversing, once the excitement died down of a few new members. The times were getting at them; I could see it. I tried not to let it get to me either.

"So, what's with the sweaters?" I asked casually.

He snorted, and lowered his head, "It's nothing."

I raised a clenched fist in threat, when he inched away from me, mock-cringing, "Alright, alright! Let's just say it's a welcoming gift into the family."

"As it should be, me and Ginny could be sisters." I grinned, but he seemed to think differently on it, with the way his eyes pondered. I tried not to hope too much, he was

Before long, after being acquainted with a few people, I was sat down in front of Remus, who had taken it upon himself to talk about placement.

His shabbiness was overshadowed by his piercing gaze, which observed me, searching for something.

"Is there something wrong?"

"You remind me of someone." I let him look upon me a little longer; aware it was platonic, and glad for it. But before it got too uncomfortable, in a few moments, I cleared my throat.

He immediately started, "Before the break is out, I'll need to see your grades, only for—"

"I'm not stupid, don't worry." I supplied softly, and he bowed his head in embarrassment.

"We shall need them, only for verification, we are not grading you." He assured, "Well, then," He composed himself, "what do you excel in?"

"I'm pretty decent, all round, but I do prefer Charms. And flying, if that counts for anything." I added cheaply. Maybe it would.

"Can you duel?" For this, he seemed most eager, his opinion of me reflecting greatly on this.

"Yes." I said simply, yet I knew this meant more than a three-letter word. I knew not of anyone else in this order without talent. Especially with Kingsley Shacklebolt, his built figure lurking in the corner, speaking with Tonks.

Not two days later, was I back at home, with my mother, telling her of the next meeting, whose location was to be given over the radio, its password given to me earlier.

"So where's Dad?" I asked.

"He just went out to the post." I chuckled; she insisted that the owls only coming as far as the end of our driveway, for fear of the scat, and her muggle ways.

My mother had just set out four plates, when my father walked through the front door, calling for good news, "Something came for you in the mail, Heidi! It's from the World Quidditch League!" He was rarely excited for anything, except Quidditch, which got him going more than my mother and _Witch_ _Weekly_.

I bounced in my seat, and eagerly summoned the letters in his hands messily over to me.

"Not at the table!" My mother exclaimed, dropping her fork.

The previous days events could almost be forgotten, when I saw the League's wax seal stamped on the envelope, and tore it open. I read aloud:

'_Dear, Ms. Heidi Brand,_

_Congratulations on being one of over 1000 recipients_

_in a worldwide search for the World Quidditch League._

_You have been invited to the _Open Invitational Quidditch

Tryout,_ this January the 15__th__, to be held in Italy, at the _

_Florence University of Witchcraft & Wizardry Coliseum. _

_For more information, please mail 1437 Quick St., Head Office, _

_Berlin, Germany.'_

"Mom! Please let me go!" I cried in joy, once I was finished.

"Dear, Worlds is a rough game." My mother said to my father. "And it's on a school night." She commented. For her, I knew it was already decided. I could argue all I wanted, which I intended on doing, and she would not budge.

"But mum, this is the chance of a lifetime!" I knew she would not be so worried if she knew I would not make it.

"I do not think this is a good idea." She said, and continued eating.

"Mum, I can do it! Besides, they give their players compensation if anything worse than a break happens, if that's what you're worried about."

"It's not about that."

"Then what? I'll be fine, I'm strong!" the glow was beginning to fade off of me.

"What then, will you fall back on, if you are replaced, or killed?" There were more than a handful of news articles depicting stories of players actually dying from the intensity, or injuries sustained.

"It's different."

"It's final." She stated cruelly calm. My hand clenched painfully around my knife.

"You would agree if it were on a weekend." I muttered, looking down at my food.

"How suspicious does it look, if I pull you out of school, while we're already being watched?" She asked.

I stood firmly, and suddenly, taking my plate with me to me room, and locked it.

By the sixth, it had been final. I knew my father had fought for me to go, though I knew not of what they spoke. It had more to do than me simply being injured from the sport. That's what healers are for.

I elected to take myself to the train, still enraged, unable to speak civilly to my parents, other than a few grunts in response. I was just glad to be by my friends' side.

Pavarti was the first I saw, and she had already claimed a seat while her twin had chosen to sit with others.

Still, as I had not the permission of my parents to go, I was revelling in the chance to tell someone about the letter.

I jumped at the chance of telling the story over and over again when Ginny, Luna, Neville and Seamus arrived in the compartment, one after the other. I could see that Luna did not quite grasp the gravity of the situation, and Neville seemed obligated to cheer for me, for he also was nervous for my reaction if he did not. Seamus appeared downright awestruck… and I detected hints of jealousy.

Ginny, however, looked sheepish. "I got a letter too." She fixed her red hair nervously, "I can't believe I we didn't tell each other!" Ginny was right. I hadn't owled her, in fear of making her jealous, but it was foolish to think that. In fact I was gladder that I shared it with her now, because she would be there right beside me.

"But I cannot go." Ginny said solemnly.

"Nor I." I grinned evilly.

"No." Neville voiced for the rest of them, not at all looking forward to what I had planned.

I smiled the whole way, plotting what the possibilities could be, and as we neared the school in the distance, my grin suddenly faded, and was replaced with a more determined expression.

* * *

**I'm sorry! I've been a bad kiddo, not updating for you guys.**

**I've actually been slacking hard. I got a bit depressed about the entire series being done, and its my senior year and all. Alas.**

**Please review, if not for me, for FY. I promise it will not be as long a wait, because I've gotten more inspiration getting out of the stupid winter break.**

**-Sage94**


	20. Chapter 20: Humiliation

Chapter 20: Humiliation

Upon the return, supper was amazing as always. I forgot how nice it was being around people my age over the break. Ginny and I were constantly talking about how disappointed we were about not being able to get permission to go to the tryout that was just in a short week. However, our plans to make it there were far more exciting.

We managed to sober up a bit, when Luna came up.

"Has anyone owled her recently?" Neville asked solemnly.

I looked down, instantly guilty; I hadn't given her much thought; only thinking of myself. Mr. Lovegood was probably suffering immensely; they only had each other.

"I've tried owling her dad, nothing yet." Neville said, obviously the most concerned. Despite missing Luna too, and Ginny also taking a big hit as a result of this, I think Neville had something going on with her. Just an outsider's opinion, I'd never asked Ginny about it, and I suppose it would be a bit insulting to bring it up now.

Finally, classes began the following day, and everyone was reacquainted; however poor the greetings were. The first class I had was with Clive. I'm actually surprised he made it thus far. He seemed to me like the type to pay his way through. I confess to being impressed. Especially since it was History of Magic. This class, we were put into groups to discuss in depth the witch burnings of New Hampshire, thoroughly boring me, especially since Clive and I were placed in the same group.

I noticed his constant staring, which had also begun before the break, since his drunken incidence in the dance hall.

"What do you want?" I didn't say it too harshly, for fear of not getting a good enough response. This would be a different tactic for me.

He was taken aback at the lightness of my tone, I could tell from his pause, but couldn't see his face as I was reading the seventh year textbook intently. "How was your break?" He asked finally.

"Fantastic, thank you." I said, jotting down more notes.

"And?" he added.

"And what?" I asked nonchalant.

"Aren't you going to ask me how mine was?" he asked genuinely, if not an inch of smugness.

"Why would your doings interest me?" I could hear his friends sniggering in the background, the effect pleasing me that even he was not immune to his own friends' teasing.

"Shut up." I could hear him hiss.

"Common courtesy." He slipped in coolly, before the professor brought us back in from our groups.

I was glad to be rid of him, still unsure of his actions. By lunch, I was glad to be back with Ginny, who was sitting with her sixth year friends.

"Hey Gin." I said, coming to squeeze next to her. "Could I get a moment alone, girls?" they dispersed, though reluctantly because I clearly interrupted them.

"Got it all set up." I said once they were far out of earshot.

"You can't be serious!" She whispered furiously.

"We slip out, take a sick day the next, and come back the next night like nothing has happened."

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?" She asked incredulously.

"Well, there really isn't that much to it."

"Excuse me, but have you noticed the level of difficulty it takes to even walk around _inside_ the school for the DA, and you want to try and get outside the school, leave, and get back in?"

"Pretty much."

She elbowed my arm. "You're mad. We'd be caught before we made it through the front gates. Maybe the front door to Hogwarts itself!"

"Mark me, I will find a way."

"Find a way to what, Ms. Brand?" came a snarky voice over my shoulder. I froze, and clamped my mouth shut. Slowly I turned to meet the gaze of Snape looming over us. Surely I would have noticed if he had heard all of that conversation. The expression wasn't open, but it wasn't a sarcastic curiosity from what I could gather.

"To make it through the year, Headmaster. You run this place like a slave driver." I said sarcastically. I gave a sideways glance to Ginny, whose eyes were wide, and not looking back at Snape.

"I'm sorry that the standards are not to your liking. Please join me in my office, to discuss this further."

"I really would, sir, but as it is the first day back, I'd like to spend this time catching up." I did not let the surprise in myself show on my face. All confidence would be lost.

"Oh I think you can find time for me. As it is, I've been trying to schedule you in all day." He half-beckoned and stalked down the Great Hall entrance.

Ginny finally looked at me, and nodded for me to follow him. "You've done it now."

"Right." I sighed, not pleased with myself.

Up in his office, Snape relaxed himself in his chair, though his manner of relaxation was far more proper than mine.

"Sit down, Ms. Brand." He commanded, and I almost instantly sat in the chair in front of his desk. I felt uncomfortable knowing he could do that without a spell. "Not so brave are we?"

"Just obeying my superiors, sir." I stated calmly, without the need for a sarcastic tone, because we both knew it was there underlying.

His eyes were narrowed suspiciously, though I couldn't be too sure why. I prayed to Merlin it wasn't that he overheard my conversation with Ginny.

He leaned down, and opened his drawer, and gathered something in his hand. I couldn't see it. "Does this belong to you?" He asked sardonically.

My stomach sunk to my knees but I held my face steady. "I can't see anything sir."

"Right you shouldn't. Funny thing, this garment. Its invisibility charm is wearing off."

Indeed it was, I was beginning to see the seams, and the telltale rip, but I hoped I hadn't lost any colour from my face.

"And you think it belongs to me?" I asked incredulously. I tried to distract myself with the quill moving along a parchment, with a Ministry for Magic seal, nothing out of the ordinary. I expected a more evil and slimier office since last time, but he kept his office in order.

"There are few, perhaps none with the _nerve_ to do it, other than a Gryffindor." His black eyes were perhaps even more narrowed.

"Sir, you can't blame me for being a Gryffindor."

"Nevertheless it was found in your hamper." Snape said coolly. My eyebrows shot up my forehead; he went lurking around my room.

"You went digging through my dirty clothes?" I exclaimed loudly. I suddenly went blank; I may have just given myself away.

"So it _was_ yours?" he asked, he knew he had me. "And why would the headmaster lower himself to scrounging through a mere child's things by himself?" He came around the table to stand behind my chair; I could hear his hands quietly grip the top of the chair.

"I'm just disgusted, and of course it's not mine." I said just as suddenly as before, and was looking straight ahead. I almost clamped my hand on my mouth; I just insulted him. Well, serves that prowler right.

"It was not me, I had asked the house elves on countless occasions before this one to be looking for any suspicious belongings. And this qualifies for one I think."

I could tell he was very pleased with himself, for finally catching the spy, and I closed my eyes slowly in defeat. The sinking feeling of knowing that it would not be mere detentions set in. It was silent for a while as he walked back to his desk, sat down, and stared at me, letting me take it in. I was trapped.

"What now shall be done to you?" He asked while looking over something official on his desk. The quill beside him stopped writing, and turned towards me, as if listening then continued writing for Snape. It was in a tone so awfully mocking that I wasn't sure whether to answer or shut up. "Well?"

"Detention for sneaking out after dark?" I supplied sarcastically.

"Do I need to bring out the Veritaserum?" He asked.

"If you think it will help." I muttered quietly, though I knew he could hear me.

"Accio." He said, and a small vial appeared before him.

"Sir, that's illegal—"

"_Immobulus_."

He already uncorked it, and was making his way over as I sat motionless, and midsentence. He tilted the vial into my mouth, and I felt the liquid trickle down my throat, making it burn.

He waved his spell away, and I was free, but in a coughing fit. I turned to wipe my watering eyes, and felt the potion affecting my thoughts. Everything felt like it was going to spill over.

"Were you ever out of bed beyond curfew?"

I couldn't give much fight, "Yes."

"And have you ever listened in on any of my conversations?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"Before the break." I blinked; Snape glared at the blatant deflection.

"What did you hear?" he tried again.

The small moment of resistance didn't last; "You, the Carrow's. Death Eaters."

His face was unreadable, but I didn't try to look for weakness, when I was still pre-occupied with the lack of control over my own tongue.

"Detention. Tomorrow you will be cleaning my office. It will be spotless." I looked around; it was already relatively clean.

"But Sna—" I stopped after hearing his office door open.

It was the Professor Carrow, the man.

"Ah, a Gryffindor. What did this one do, Headmaster?" he asked, while placing a firm hand on my shoulder. I tried to shake it off, but he gripped me tighter. I glared back, but he did not relent.

"We found the spy." Snape said simply, and returned back to his papers, and his quill resumed writing for him.

"May I?" Carrow asked. My blood froze as I heard a knuckle crack.

Snape looked up, but did not say anything. I saw something in his eye that gave me an inch of hope. But I suppose it was meant to be small, because his eyes hardened not a moment later, and said, "You may."

Before I could open my mouth to question, he cast his wand on me. Without words, what felt like, drop kicks on my whole body rained down. It stopped in under a minute and I rolled onto my side.

Without warning, he personally landed a kick to my back, and I wailed in agony.

"Get up." He uttered. I almost didn't, for fear of being attacked again. "Go." He barked, and I shot one last glare at Snape, before scurrying out the door.

I hadn't taken into account how I might look, but when I stopped in the girls' bathroom and looked in the mirror, my face was fine. I lifted my sweater, and several bruises that I had expected to show weren't there. I prodded the area, then turned and checked out my back, the only sign that I had been hurt, because of the non-magical nature.

I decided to head back to lunch to tell Ginny what happened. I was hunched along the way, and gained several odd looks, but I hadn't recognized most of the people anyways. Finally, after it felt like my back was going to give out on me, I reached the open Great Hall doors, and spotted Ginny sitting alone again, still waiting for me. I must have only been gone for half an hour.

I approached the table casually as I could, since there was more people here than in the halls, but stopped short, when I felt the wind from someone walking past me brush my back. I shivered as I realized Snape was just giving me a warning, as I turned to see his cloaked form.

"Hey." I said sombrely, tapping Ginny's shoulder then took a seat next to her, facing the head table.

"Oh, hi, what happened?" She asked in a hush tone.

I looked up one last time to see Snape and professor Carrow give me a look.

"Nothing, just something about my procrastination." I rolled my eyes for effect.

"Oh. Well, you do slack a lot." She didn't seem to think anything was amiss, and for that I was glad; it made my façade easier.

The early evening had rolled around, and I was pleased to be on my way to supper after a particularly gruelling day in Charms with Clive, Malfoy and Pansy. Sadly, only Neville was there with me, and he was already only coming into his own, he hadn't time to look after me just yet. I'd rather he'd stick up for himself anyways, as it would give me far more satisfaction, in a way.

I felt a hand touch my hair, as I was waiting for the crowd ahead of me to gather into the Great Hall. I whipped around to see Clive and a couple of Slytherins I did not care to know.

"What?" I asked, not in the mood.

"Just admiring."

I was at a loss what to say, and chose an incredulous look.

"Now what is wrong with that?" He asked. "And more, why are you surprised?"

"Stop teasing me." I spluttered out. I cringed at how childish it sounded. I turned brusquely, but was pulled back by my hip, into Clive.

"Get used to it." It wasn't meanly said, but I shivered in something akin to disgust anyways. At least I think it was. I couldn't help but blush profusely when I had to walk away from Clive in front of most of the other seniors, and went our separate ways; he to his table on the opposite side of the room, and I to Gryffindor.

"Do I need to ask?" Ginny asked quietly once I sat down, not looking up from her copy of the _Quibbler_.

"No." I grumbled quietly.

"Practice tonight." She added, seemingly amused by me.

"Right." I said, not looking forward to outside, as it was still winter. A warming charm wouldn't stop the snow from hitting my face, and Mme. Hooch certainly won't let us use warming spells in a game. "When's the next game?" I asked.

"This Friday at four. It's supposed to be snowing."

"Great."

The following day, class had gone terribly, because most of my classes I either had Clive and Malfoy to face, or I didn't have people like Seamus, Pavarti or Neville to talk to. But in fact I didn't have to worry about Clive touching me today, because he chose to instead give me 'flirtatious' looks all day.

Then, by detention, I was all worked up. I almost regretted not facing Clive and telling him to stop whatever he was trying to pull. Not only that, but I had to think about what Snape was going to do. I had to walk up to Snape's office by myself, since Ginny was already taxed with homework and couldn't accompany me, but I'd live for a while with myself.

As soon as I stood before the statue, I cursed. I forgot the password.

What was it, something to do with flowers? I listed 'tulips, marigolds, petunias, daisies, roses, blossoms…'

"Daffodils, Lily…" I stopped, when I saw the gargoyle step aside, with a knowing smirk. So what if my mind was on other things.

"What?" I asked, sort of taking a threatening step towards it, before giggling, and continuing on my way. The way up the staircase was cold, contrasting the rest of the school well. Cold like I remembered yesterday. I stopped at his door, paused, before taking a deep breath and opening it quickly. The trace of my last giggle was gone from my face.

"You're late." He said openly, daring me to make up some excuse. Of which I was more than happy to oblige.

"I forgot the password." I crossed my arms.

"I can teach you to remember, especially since you'll be coming here out of habit." He cocked his eyebrow, and held out a hand, palm up.

"What?" I asked.

"Your wand." Right. I should have known he wouldn't let me do this magically. I handed it over, and rolled my eyes, waiting for orders. He summoned a bucket full of steaming water to the front of the desk, and a small sponge. "Start with the floors."

I had to get down on my hands and knees, and start scrubbing the already clean floor. This was ridiculous.

In an hour's time, I was sweating, but just finishing up by his desk. I just couldn't figure out how this had anything to do, or was anything I had imagined for me finding out about him talk about being a Death Eater.

"Sir, when can I go to bed?" I asked, even though it was only seven by now.

"I make the hours. Now stop talking." He quipped, watching me make small circles with the sponge on the floor.

"That's why I'm asking." I muttered. "The least you could do is give me a mop." But I was finished anyways, and there was no sense now. I stood, and craned my neck, and leaned back, hearing the satisfying cracks.

"I said be quiet." He barked, at least a bark in his own standards. Papers were sent flying about, over my just dried floors. At least a good hundred pieces. "Now pick it up."

I narrowed my eyes, and picked up a piece, before ripping it in half. I turned and stormed towards the door. It shut before my eyes, but I tried to open it anyways.

"Sir this is ridiculous. If you're only going to make me clean, this isn't what I it would be."

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know, something more…" I was at a loss for words.

"Perhaps it would have been better to tell you that this was only the beginning. I must confess to have some dramatic quality, when I mean to save the best for last."

"So?" I was still wondering.

"Finish cleaning and I will tell you."

"I will not finish in time." I argued.

"Very well, if you're eager." His voice was never more than a tad smug; his tone was always levelly calm and cold.

"Crucio." He muttered, and I was on the floor, rolling around in the floors I just cleaned. He took it back, but I still keeled on my knees in the aftermath. I had never thought that a teacher, no matter what he was, would dare to use an unforgivable curse in school.

"Fuck." I muttered. I groaned, and sat back on my haunches, a full on snarl on my face.

"Do not curse."

"And you lead by example?" I said, finally turning to face him, and stood.

"Ms. Brand," He started, ignoring my comment, "you will be the first for our, lets call it, social experiment. For you see, we've been all too lenient on you children. We need to send a message to all of your friends that conspiring actions will not be tolerated."

"Tonight, a swift but effective beating _would_ do, but I find that there are much more effective and humorous ways to deal with proud people like you." He looked as if he's never experienced humorous before in his life.

"Such as?"

"Well, what would be effective for a Gryffindor?" When I didn't answer, he cocked his eyebrow. "Well?"

"I thought that was rhetorical."

"No. However, you needn't answer, I already had something in mind. I see you've made a fair amount of friends with the Slytherins. You will be cleaning the dungeons every other night until I deem fit."

I groaned. It was never about cleaning as a punishment. It was humiliation. I finally saw why he scattered the parchment.

Snape saw me eyeing the parchment on the floor, and his face looked at me expectantly. "Pick it up. Then you may go. You start Thursday."

"Thank you." I grumbled sarcastically.

**So I definitely lied. About that last closing message. :/ Sorry guys, I've been just way too busy. But please lemme know what you think in the comments, maybe some ideas I can put into consideration. I don't know if you're quiet to punish me, haha, but comments/reviews honestly help better than silence.**

**-Sage94**


	21. Chapter 21: Attack

**Yes, my mysterious disappearance can be explained... but i'd rather you read the chapter and reviewed instead yo**

Chapter 21: Attack

I received a paper airplane memo just two nights later, detailing where I was to report and what time I was to finish; starting at five, and ending at nine, in the first dungeon corridor a bucket and mop and spray cleaners and sponges were in a small pile leaning against a pillar ready for my use. Snape, one of the most serious people to walk the school grounds no doubt, had constructed a paper airplane. Perhaps unconsciously.

I took Ginny with me the first night, so she could keep me company. With some false hope the first thing we tried to do was charm the brooms into sweeping, but I kind of figured this wasn't supposed to be easy.

"Thanks for skipping dinner for me, Gin." I said gratefully, while I swept the floors first.

She smiled quirkily, and chewed her apple. She was sitting in a place I had already cleaned, doing her homework, mostly for moral support. So far, I'd only received dirty looks from the Slytherins but left alone.

"No worries, Heid. But just a question; how long is this supposed to go on?"

I stopped, as a few sixth year Slytherin girls turned an ear into our conversation on their way by to probably spark up _more_ gossip. They finally realized I wasn't going to speak with them there, and left with a little annoyance on their faces.

"I'm not sure; probably forever though. I'm sure if he were allowed, he would stop me going to Quidditch Friday."

"Which reminds me; you better be there for the game. No more trouble, for crying out loud!" She reprimanded.

I snorted, "Yeah, yeah." I went back to scrubbing the grime off the glass panels. Maybe I misunderstood the design of these dungeons, but its not like light could ever file through into these rooms by the glass.

After about a couple hours, Ginny checked with me if it was okay for her to retire, and I agreed, but I still had the last bit of the hallway to finish.

I could hear "… watch this!" I heard someone shout. I quickly turned, but I shouldn't have as slime splattered across my front. But mostly on my face.

I wiped it off my mouth and nose, and shrieked oddly, but angrily and with frustration. I then scooped the substance off my eyes, and looked at the green goop in my hands before looking up at some third year Slytherins, followed up by seventh years laughing hysterically.

I saw Clive amidst them, failing at concealing a toothy grin, but I wasn't surprised. The only one not amused was Malfoy, who seemed to be withering away, looking terrible compared to the boy before the winter break. He continued walking, but I was more focused on a little third year, whose wand was drawn. I almost drew my wand as well, but took a deep breath, and gestured to him how I'd be watching him. They scurried away, considerably less brave than their senior counterparts, who stayed behind to watch me struggle. I cast furious glances at them, and then recoiled as Clive trotted over to my side, looking back at his friends the whole way. I can't imagine any Slytherin providing any kind of support for another, so why was he approaching me?

"What?" I demanded, taking off my cardigan, only to find my button up was stained green, as well as my undershirt. I cursed under my breath, trying to get the stuff out of my eyelashes.

He expertly cleaned my face with a charm, and the gunk was cleared. "You're becoming increasingly difficult to befriend." He snorted when he saw the look on my face.

"I don't _want_ to be your friend." I seethed. I turned away from him and tried a cleaning spell on my clothes, even resorting to an imprecise _scourgify_, but it was effectively hexed. _How did Clive know what spell to use?_ I wondered suspiciously.

"Good luck in this school without the right people." He said coolly, and I heard him take a step closer, but then his steps retreated to his friends.

I rose. "_Right_ is a matter of opinion, isn't it then?" I said just loud enough for him to hear, kicking my clothes against the wall.

I sighed as they left, the whole group casting glances ranging from disgusted, to humoured.

It was nine by the time I was finished, but I went to the Great Hall anyways, in search of food. I was still green, and stunk somewhat of steamed broccoli. The doors were slightly ajar, and a small candle lit a spot at the Gryffindor table.

"Perfect." I sat, and a timid elf appeared with a dish.

"Sorry, missus, for the meagre portions. Headmaster has ordered nothing more."

"Oh… well thanks anyways." I clenched my fist around my fork; unimpressed would be an understatement. Though this was weak punishment compared to slaving for the Slytherins.

I ate quickly, not anticipating the onslaught of homework I would have to finish, but hasting to the common room.

The following day, Ginny had to come into the seventh year's room to wake me since in was literally five minutes until class started. Ginny would murder me if I skipped; Quidditch players _had_ to attend class, otherwise we weren't allowed to play.

…

Finally, it was game time. We laced our boots, and strapped our goggles on. Our brooms were rough at the handles, but smooth at the tails. Ginny spoke up: Fire, Speed, strategy, and fly. But I was in my own zone. We were playing Slytherin, our outmost opponent, and I would need my concentration.

Minutes passed, and Madame Hooch called us out of the dressing rooms. The wind howled, and spat wet snow in every which way. The buzzer sounded. Quaffles, then bludgers, then finally, the snitch was released, and flew around gingerly, as if sensing for its hunters. It succeeded, and whizzed around my head, then to the other seeker; some fifth year.

I did a double take; Malfoy wasn't in his normal position as seeker.

I had little time to think before Hooch blew her whistle sounded, and my short thoughts were ceased; I had a job to do.

Straight away, I knew that the snitch was going to be right darn cruel. That fifth year boy competing with me, had even less of a chance; he was watching the play.

I stopped my overhead surveillance after fifteen minutes of play; we were being demolished. The score was already 90 to 40. Make that 100.

At this rate, even if I did find the snitch in this weather, we'd lose anyways.

I stopped watching after Seamus almost tumbled off his broom thanks to a bludger, unnerved by his lack of awareness. I turned and cursed, as I saw the other seeker finally picking up a trail.

I came up beside him, as we circled the Slytherin hoops; the snitch was weaving impossibly through them. I kept my distance, following up beside it, whereas the kid was showing off by weaving in behind it.

He ended up coming around the middle hoop too tightly, and as I followed up beside the poles, he smashed his knee, and was sent hurdling into one of his beaters.

I let myself snigger before going after the snitch, which had taken to flying in the direction of the bludgers.

My plan of attack had switched now. I'd have to prevent that fifth year from reaching the snitch until we regained momentum.

I deigned that he would take a while longer to regain his senses, and quickly circled back to Ginny, who was out of play for the tiniest moment.

"Pick it up!" I shouted over the howling wind, in passing. I only received her flickering eyes in my direction as a confirmation, and then to the scoreboard, which was enough. She knew I'd do my job, and vice versa.

I rounded again, catching a faint glint of the snitch trickling around the headmaster's box. I flew to its general area, but not giving away its exact location to the fifth year. I looked to the scoreboard finally. We were down 180 to 60. I cursed again, as Slytherin was determined to not let my plan work.

Finally the fifth year decided that it was in his best interest to shadow me. I rolled my eyes, because I couldn't shake him, it would only be a matter of time before he saw the snitch circling above us.

He came to my side, and winked through his goggles. "Lovely weather we're having!" He shouted over the winds.

I rolled my eyes, but kept an eye on the snitch, and circled again, keeping him close by.

I looked at the scoreboard. We had thirty more points. I bolted, seeing that this was ample enough time for me to go after the snitch. The ditched Slytherin immediately takes the hint, and follows suit, much to my annoyance.

The snitch takes notice as well; it seems to remark the score, and takes sharper turns to avoid us.

The Slytherin boy catches up, even passing me. I scoff, and speed up, cutting in front of him. He barely has time to turn, and his broom handle is caught under my arms, and his torso is holding on for dear life on top of me. I tightly grip the handle with my thighs, and drop downwards, letting my arms go free, effectively shaking him off; he scrambles, barely getting a hold of the broom handle, but falls another fifty feet before he can get on top of his broom, even longer to regain control.

Meanwhile, I'm hot on trail of the snitch. I hear the bludgers whizz by, taking aim for me, and as they find their way back, I fly to the Slytherin beaters, and do a sharp downturn, letting the bludgers have their way with them.

The snitch is still in sight after my large detour, and I speed up. It must have sensed too late that I had it within arms length, and I ripped it out of the air effectively. Take that Slytherin.

The roar of the crowd increases, and I descend onto my team, the golden bauble's wings folded back in shame.

Back inside, we cheered, eager for the party that was sure to ensue after the beating that the Slytherins went through.

When I woke the next day, around two o'clock, I sighed in content despite a slight buzz from the night before. I walked down to the common room, glad that I had thought to leave the party early in favour of a bed. I remembered seeing a couple people crashed out on the couches. I chuckled, seeing Seamus on an armchair.

Then my mood disappeared when I remember that I have to clean the halls again.

By the next Wednesday, the day before I had planned to leave with Ginny. Ginny had explained that two years ago that she, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna and Neville had left the school via Thestrals. That's how we would leave too. We worked out that we'd have supper, and then slip out undetected while the teachers were keeping a watch over the vast majority of the students. Luckily for us, the most security in the school was late nights and at the front gates of the school. Since you can't fly a broom out easily, we figured that flying the Thestrals, only carrying the brooms aside would be less risky. Thestrals could come and go as they please.

I just had to withstand one more night of torment in the dungeons.

"Hey, Nev, I can't make it to the meeting tonight, since I have to clean the dungeons _yet again_, but just update me on whatever's going on, okay?" I asked him, before heading down alone.

"You sure you want to go down alone?" He asked nervously, but not fearfully.

"No, I'll be good for another night."

He seemed to hesitate before turning after we said our goodbyes, but I waved him away confidently. Nothing had _really_ happened since I was turned green, other than a few snide remarks here and there. I would manage.

As of late I was fixing up some miscellaneous hallway, hardly anyone went down this way and the dust was everywhere. It didn't look like it had been touched by the house-elves in a century. Who would blame them? The dungeons were an overall unpleasant place to be in the first place.

I scrubbed along, glad to be a bit out of the way. I checked around the corner and saw that it was close to eight. I only had one more hour-ish of this before I could get a little rucksack started for tomorrow night.

I went back to my duties, but stopped briefly to hear the rhythm of footsteps. They were largely paced, and heavy. Maybe Snape had sent the Carrow's down to check up on me, and they do _so_ often. Actually, they've only done it twice but I made sure to get back to work. I heard the steps retreat, then return with a second set. I turned, only to be hit and blinded by some silent hex.

I knew that since the only people who could know about not using words for magic: either us in the DA or the advanced children of the dark arts, since the teachers wouldn't dare to attack outside of their offices. Or would they?

In those brief moments of disorientation and reflection, I could hear the footfalls rush towards me, and one of them picked my up easily and drove me into the wall. I choked on air as my head was smashed back. I felt useless, my body froze as numerous fists made contact with me.

I only barely managed to make sounds of dissent, but I couldn't make words with my mouth, and that was not from any spell, but from shock, I knew. Next, my legs were kicked out from under me, and I landed hard on my hip, and I was kicked a few times. One last was made for good measure, before I heard one of them kneel beside me. I rolled away, but he muttered, "Come here" and pulled me back by my shirt. They were male, but I somehow knew before that no one female could throw repeatedly crushing punches quite like these boys.

I felt him hesitate along the hem of my shirt, and I kept praying that whoever this was had some heart to keep my clothes on. The moment's hesitation was long enough because I could hear down the hall, a cry of anger.

"Stop!" I could make-out. The warmth of the boy's body that was crouched next to me stood, and cursed under his breath, before the two of them took off down the hall.

A small argument broke out, but before I leaned over to listen, I realized I could hardly move my body without immediate pain. My breathing came out even more raggedly, and soon, I knew what it was like to hyperventilate. I managed to claw at and around my eyes, but whatever was blacking my vision wasn't substantial.

Once my shudders ceased, I noted it was quiet. I wasn't quite sure if I was safe, but at least I was spared the sounds of myself being beaten.

I groaned to test my voice, and I was hovering between shaky and indiscernible. Finally, I decided I was alone. The hex was already starting to wear off, and whoever attacked me, and worse, whoever spared me would probably never be known to me. Not because of this knowledge, but because I wondered how long it would take to heal, I started to sob. Goodbye to World Quidditch.

As I cried alone in the basement, the torches' lights were covered by a blurry figure crouched in my way. Maybe two.

A cold and clammy hand touched the bruise over my forehead. I moaned incoherently, but I meant to say 'go away'. It briefly let go, but placed it back on. I was glad its owner didn't listen though. Small relief came over my throbbing bruise.

I shut my eyes, as the hands felt along my torso, where the shirt had been torn a little from the pulling. Still, it could have been worse. This person hovering me could have come much later. The tears in my eyes cleared, and I choked again, as I noticed Clive crouched beside me. First, I was surprised I could see, but then more so as I realized that not only was _Clive_ beside me, but also, over his shoulder stood Snape.

"Are you alright?" Snape's voice asked in an unreadable tone.

I managed to find my voice, "Yeah." Great, once again my wit precedes me. Seconds later I realize I probably could have come up with much more… reproachful, were I not so desperate at the moment.

He didn't say anything else, and I almost figured he would leave me here, but then I asked _why is he here in the first place?_ He had never come down before. Perhaps Clive went to get him. Perhaps even Clive was the person who stopped the two attackers. Then maybe he knows who it was. But I read his face, and just by the circumstances I knew it would probably be close to impossible to get the identities of the attackers out of him. A Slytherin ratting out a Slytherin was unheard of. And he'd already stopped them from further aggression.

"_Leviocorpus_," Snape utters, and I'm lifted into the air. He rushes with me in trail to the hospital wing, before stopping in the main entrance to see that Clive had followed most of the way.

"You may go, Mr. Thicknesse."

"You are likely misinterpreting my predisposition towards the Slytherin house as a slight guideline, however it is _well_ past curfew, and my words are to be followed." Clive stared at him for a moment, before nodding. "_You may go_." I thought about sniggering as Clive reluctantly but punctually departed towards the dungeon. Until I figured that the pain in my abdomen was too great. I'm feeling tired anyways.

If Snape weren't such a jerk, I think I'd like him for his incredible ability to make everyone, even his peers to appear akin to buffoons. Except for McGonagall, of course.

I fell asleep, deciding I liked the feeling of being suspended gently in the air.

**Peace folks**

**Sage94**


	22. Chapter 22: Out

**So i'm veeeeery sorry this chapter is long overdue. It's a bit long, but i felt it was necessary, since i want to add to _her_ story too, not just the canon.**

**please enjoy, and when you're finished, review!**

Chapter 22: Out

I woke to what I hoped was the following morning. But I couldn't tell a whole lot because frankly all they have in this hospital wing is a clock. It was early enough, because the sun wasn't up, and outside it was still a gray-blue. Either that, or it was the evening, but I couldn't hear the bustling of students like the evening.

It took me a few moments to remember being attacked last night. How Clive had been one of the firsts by my side. I briefly imagined him sitting in the chair next to my bed, and shuddered. I was torn; either he could have very well saved me from something worse, or he was a disgusting Slytherin son, of a poor excuse for a minister.

I waned in and out of sleep for a few more hours, until Poppy came in, a grave look on her face that she always seemed to have lately. But she hasn't been getting any more or less students rolling through, I think. I realized she was apart of that group of teachers who weren't putting up with the Carrow's, and the lack of teachable subjects. How far along can you _go_ in DADA if all you're doing is reading a textbook? I remember a day or two when McGonagall would whip Alecto or her brother into line with her cutting words. I'd hate to be a Death Eater duelling her.

"How are you doing, deary?" She asked.

"I dunno, fine I suppose," I said. I hadn't really thought about my current status yet, just mulling around about last night.

"Well you look a world better." She adjusted my pillow, and performed a spell to check on my wounds.

I hesitated for a moment, wondering if she'd know. "Mam, do… you know what happened? _It was_ last night, right?" I asked.

She nodded to the latter question, "Two broken ribs, deep tissue bruising… I mended those back in order in less than minute you walked in, but it was this curse that had been placed over your vision that I wanted to keep an eye on."

She brought light from the tip of her wand, asking me to follow it, and said, "Well, nothing seems immediately wrong…" She pocketed her wand. "And the spell has faded, but I have something for you to carry around if it flares up again." She didn't exactly answer my question, but I guess she doesn't know much. But inside her apron, she pulled out a yellow gold ring that she gave me to twist if something were to happen to my eyes while I was alone.

"Tracking device?" I offered. I was glad it was morning. It gave me all day to plan things out.

"More or less."

An unnerving thought struck me. "Mam, I mean no offence, but wouldn't it be more efficient if I were sent to St. Mungo's? I _was_ cursed."

Ah, so this is why she was grave. "Headmaster Snape has asked not to submit children to St. Mungo's under certain circumstances," She said tightly. "Do not worry, you're not the only student who has been injured thusfar."

I clenched my fists. She knew I got the picture. So, _because_ I was attacked, _and_ cursed, it would result in less than savoury attention if it were to be known that a student was cursed inside school walls. By another student. Cursed!

"Did they catch…?" She shook her head in dissent, and I was disappointed, but not surprised. Snape, well known to be Slytherin, would never belittle the Slytherin name by punishing them harshly. Right? After all, he used to be the head of house.

"So would you say I'm ready to go?" I asked. I felt my ribs, and like she said, they were fine.

"Well, I would prefer keeping you for the day, but certain superiors have recommended I release you today. '_Do not baby the student's_ were the words as I seem to recall being told." She rolled her eyes as she turned to go back to business.

I smirked. They're lucky we have a good enough healer. "Maybe I'll just spend the day in the Common Room." I said it above a whisper to ensure she heard me. I could tell she was amused, and I stood to leave.

I looked at the clock. Six forty-five.

I decided to sit with Ginny alone, for breakfast and lunch, before dropping my ring off in my bed. That should show anyone tracking me that I was there. Generally, the professors didn't care for skippers, only as long as it was a rare occurrence. And since I'm _generally_ a good kid, they wouldn't mind much for one day, especially since I was just recently beat the crap out of. Maybe I'd be chewed out tomorrow. It would be worth it.

"So review the plan." Ginny said deviously over our plates

"Grab equipment and brooms."

"Sneak out school."

"Forbidden forest."

"Portkey in London."

"Portkey?" I asked.

"Yeah, the twins have _graciously_ decided to help out."

"How'd they know we were going?" I asked.

"They never thought we wouldn't go. Its scary how good they are sometimes," She snorted, but we kept to listing things.

Eventually we got to the steady task of getting back into the school. Ginny said not to worry, because apparently her brothers had a plan. A plan we weren't privy to, but such were the methods of two tricksters. I trusted them well enough though. Ginny also said she picked up a few things about the pattern of how the entrance of the school is monitored. We had to get to the door at two oh-one on the dot in order to avoid two professors and Filch who were nearby around then.

We opened it silently, and breathed a sigh of relief when we crossed the courtyard without notice.

We rounded a corner and made our way down towards the Quidditch pitch, and into our dressing room. In my locker, I was glad for packing my stuff up in a duffle bag earlier. Usually, this locker is a mess. I shrunk my bag and stuffed it in my thick coat pocket.

We went in way behind Hagrid's hut, where Luna used to say the Thestrals hung around. Ginny told me about how last year Bellatrix Lestrange burnt his house to a crisp. The mere mention of her name made me grimace. I thought about Neville flippantly. But that was the last thing he wanted; pity.

We flew our brooms into the forest so that no tracks were left, but when we reached a small clearing, heavy and wet snow started to fall anyway.

"Look!" Ginny said excitedly. Here we didn't have to worry about being heard since most noises were lost here. I looked to where she was pointing, and couldn't see much. I squinted more closely, and saw snow stopping suddenly. It encased the air, and I realized she was pointing at the snow floating on the invisible Thestrals. But how would I get on it? With the guidance of snow? For all I knew, it could buck me off as soon as I tried.

While I was being amazed, Ginny had enlarged her bag, and pulled out a brown parchment package. She unwrapped it and inside was two hefty steaks. I was going to say something probably witty about that, but she tossed two. I briefly wondered if she could see them. I thought it might be too hurtful to ask. But from the way she would feel around, I wasn't sure. For all I knew though, she could be touching them. I'll ask after tonight.

Ginny guided me to one that she was feeling too, putting my hand on its back. I was preoccupied with feeling around mine, petting it gently that I was surprised to hear Ginny speak.

"I think they'll let us." She suddenly leapt up onto it after feeling the horse thing.

"Oh." I felt for the mane-like thing and took a couple steps back to ready before jumping into the air. I looked quickly to the ground and saw telltale hoof prints move over as I was jumping. I clipped my foot off of its hind and fell into the snow.

I turned around, and saw a huge oval shaped imprint in the snow. I stared puzzled at it. I knew it was the same horse, but what was it doing?

"I think we're going to be a bit delayed."

"No, wait." She said. "Feel for it. It looks like it's kneeling for you." Ginny's eyes were alight with excitement, something I didn't share.

I did feel for it, and put my legs around it slowly. Ginny giggled at my distress when suddenly I was raised into the air.

"Outside the barriers." Ginny said into the ear of her beast. We took off, and I quickly linked my arms around its neck.

The snow let off a little, and within an hour we landed. I rolled off of my Thestral, despite the huge drop. The snow cushioned my fall anyways. Ginny pulled out _more_ raw meat, threw it to the creatures, and then she grabbed my hand.

We apparated to the well-known Hyde Park. I was still keeled over from the flight. My thighs were sore from clenching around the bony body of the Thestral.

I sat up, and it was also full of snow here. The flakes were lighter, and less damp.

"Never again." I still recall jerkily trying to hold on to the invisible creature.

"If Fred and George don't show, we might have to." Ginny was nervous too. It would be another few hours before we had to be in Florence. But we left room for error no matter how carefully we planned this, just so we had ample time to fix it.

We waited another couple of minutes, and suddenly I felt packed snow hit the back of my head. "Ok, ow." I shivered.

"There you are!" George said jovially.

"We were worried we wouldn't see you lot." Fred added.

"Though a bit _eerie_ here, innit?" George said.

"Still running those cheesy ear jokes, eh George?" I asked.

"He's milking it nowadays." Fred said.

We got down to business. We sat in a small circle in the snow.

"You two are lucky we're here anyways." Fred continued.

"Why?" Ginny asked.

"Well, for starters, good luck getting into the university without a portkey."

"Why?" I asked. They were odd like that, keeping us guessing.

"Bit harder getting directions from Italian wizards," said Fred. "That _and_ there's no public entrance."

"Nothing like here in London." George added.

"How do you know?" Ginny asked suspiciously.

George laughed. "The question is: why didn't you find out in the first place?"

"Well, it _says_ where it is in the letter. Nothing about a secret entrance."

"And get used to it sis; we know everything." Fred patted her shoulder amicably. I shook my head. If they had enough sense to know that we were going. So they were either very intuitive or my own parents didn't trust me.

"Just take us to the portkey." Ginny said curtly.

"Alright, alright."

"You're good alright, eh Brand?" Fred said, putting his lanky arm around me. I instantly fixed my face; I hadn't realized I was frowning.

"Pretty much."

"And what brought upon that?" His voice was mocking empathy, and he poked my previously drooping lip.

Subconsciously, I must have been thinking about my recent happenings, but I knew I didn't want people to know. She had inquired as to where I was, and all I said was that I was feverish and went to Mme. Pompfrey to make sure it was nothing serious. Naturally it required me to stay overnight. I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to lie, but I did feel a light satisfaction when I found I could do it seamlessly. Which made no sense since it was counterproductive.

"I'm just extremely tired from staying up from being sick. Plus the added excitement kept me up too." I said, keeping to my fib.

"Next time just come to my place, and I can fix you up nice and good." He winked, and I snorted.

"When's the last time you two actually fixed _anything_? I'm scared that I've gotten used to explosions ever since you two got you first wands." Ginny said. Funny thing was that I don't think she was joking.

"Watch it sis, _we're_ doing _you_ a favour." Fred countered smartly.

"Let's get to that portkey then, shall we?" I suggested, before their arguing got too out of hand.

"Right. This way." George said, popping up the quickest from our seated positions.

We continued walking, stopping by an enormous pine, and the twins pointed out a white pinecone, almost indiscernible because it was next to snow, but still half-visible from the clear ground under the brush.

Ginny and I grabbed a hold of it, prepared for a last second farewell, but they touched it as well, and I could hear Ginny groan before we were whisked away. We descended carefully to the marble floorings of a bustling school, full of older students. I had never really thought of going on to become a master in any of the subjects, since I mostly planned on maybe two career choices, but at looking at the professionalism, maybe I wouldn't mind. And the male student body wasn't half-bad looking either.

I glanced at Ginny, since she and I were having the same thoughts. I giggled, but made my way to a directory hanging on a wall across the atrium to avoid the twins' odd stares. I checked where we were; the fine art's department. Which was a _long_ wing away from the sports and recreation centre.

"Fred, time?" I asked shortly, still considering the area around us.

He was fixedly looking down at a whirring and blinking pocket watch, , "it's just adjusting to the time-change" He assured me before hitting it, and nodding. "Four."

"Let's go check in." Ginny said. We walked several huge wings away, all the way there, older students loitered, either writing or drinking coffee.

We arrived at huge doors, presumably leading outside, with a good-sized sign on the sign that said 'Quidditch pitch'. To the side, a table was set up with two old-ish professors.

"Good evening." One said. He was stout, and strong, and had a dark red hair, and was wearing dress robes. I thought I might've recognized him, but shook it off. "Names?" He asked in an Irish brogue.

"Brand."

"Blythe or Heidi?" He asked, checking his list. There were two, and I was determined to be the better one.

"Heidi."

"Right. Well, here's your registration number, and just pin it to the back of your robes when you're ready." I looked down at my '104'. "And here's a set of robes for the both of you." I received a blue, and Ginny a red.

Ginny got through well enough, being recognized by the second man in Quidditch robes as a Weasley. He had a rather plump man, with the university crest on the front of his Quidditch robe. "Your dressing room is through the doors, and under the first set of stands on the left side. And tell Arthur I said hello!""

"Right." Ginny muttered, since we were determined to have this kept a secret should we fail or something. "Oh, I will!" She said just as excitedly.

We opened the door, and were immediately immersed into a stone walled hallway, each curved left and right, evidently some round under passage of the pitch.

"So, I guess this is where we part ways. Hope to see you boys in the stands." I said awkwardly. I looked up at Fred, and he blinked. "You know, because you can't come back to the dressing roo—"

"Oh! Yeah, sorry." He recovered by laughing, and looked away from me nervously.

Me and Ginny went to get ready, where at least a twenty other girls were getting ready, and I didn't expect this was the bulk of them, as a third of the thousand other hopefuls were supposed to be here too, as the people were divided into different days for times' sake. I didn't like the atmosphere at all; everyone was shifty-eyed, unpleasant, and snappy. I was glad I at least knew Ginny.

As I listened in, I recognized there were some Americans who were apart of an interscholastic league, which I was slightly jealous of, since they obviously had playing time outside of school from the sounds of it. I would glance at Ginny every so often so we could share a look of discomfort. I knew that there were more schools across North America, so they probably made up some competition, then there were probably some graduates, even some aging up to 24 if they were lucky to keep at the sport to gain an invitation.

Try-outs weren't officially on for another half-hour, but most of the other people in our dressing room had cleared out, leaving silently or claiming they needed time to stretch and limber up. I cringed at how professional some of them sounded. I could only imagine, if there were hundreds of other contestants.

We had decided to get a look for ourselves where this would take place, and readied quickly too, pinned each other's numbers on the provided solid coloured Quidditch robes.

I hadn't really imagined how they would evaluate us. In waves? Or had they taken into consideration the vast amount of people and spaced out trials. While pondering, Ginny nudged me out and directed me to an entrance onto the pitch. Lights were blinding, but I managed to recover quickly in order to get a good view of the pitch. The grass was crisp, the stands were enormous, and the appeared enlarged in compensation for the amount of people it was holding today. A bit more than regulation size.

I glanced around, and most people were lounging in the bottom rows of the stands, or leisurely flying about, but there were a few who were racing the each other already, or entered in serious death-stares. There must have been about fifty other blue-coloured robes, and I was pleased to observe I probably wasn't the smallest. This small comfort did nothing when I saw some of the burly boys in green, evidently beaters.

Me and Gin did a quick lap around the pitch, and did some stretching, nothing out of the ordinary, and we tried our best to ignore any staring, since we were dishing it out too, though I can proudly admit to being curious rather than vicious.

We stopped to grab a quick drink at a small table set up, and sat down on the grass, waiting for the few short minutes to pass before they would call us to order.

"Hey," Someone said in greeting to my right. I turned, and saw an impossibly muscled young man—he couldn't possibly be my age—sporting a blue robe as well. I gulped; there was no way that he could be a seeker too.

"Hey." I looked around me to make sure that it wasn't directed at anyone else.

"Name's Grant." He extended his hand, and I shook it, although warily. He seemed to have a genuine smile though.

"Heidi." I offered, deciding to smile in return. "Crazy turn out, eh?" I really wasn't one for conversation, but he seemed the type to provide for the conversation, and I was glad for that. I looked over at Ginny, who was turned away, but still kind of listening to our conversation.

My question had set him off. He started off by telling me he was from America, his accent proved that. He was twenty, had eight siblings, him being the youngest, and two of his older brothers had already participated in a World Cup game respectively. _Great,_ more cause for concern. He'd regretfully had previous engagements for previous drafts, most of them trivial, but enough to keep him away. "Anyways, I got a call up saying they were looking for experienced seekers higher up, and straight away they called my brother seeing if he knew anyone overseas, and he vouched for my name. Helped me train and all."

I still couldn't help but wince despite the age difference. Perhaps everyone here looked younger than they were, because I was suddenly starting to doubt that there were plenty of seventeen year olds. "Well, I hope to give you enough competition, then."

"Same to you, good luck." He patted my back, and I pretended not to feel pain. I tried telling myself that maybe he was slower than he looked.

On cue, an amplified voice echoed from the top box, where executives sat. The voice was rough and brash, and had a no nonsense feel. "Welcome, youths, to the annual draft picks for the World Quidditch League. I am Darcy Queen, Head of the Department of Games and Sports." I smirked, recalling the mysterious fleeing of Ludo Bagman after his scandalous career, "Our association's draft has been founded upon the significance of encouraging people like you to continue your efforts for the love of the game, and effort put forth. Scouts have gathered from around the world to prospect players like you. Do not be discouraged if a World Quidditch team is not in your future midst after today; Regional drafts are selected come spring. But that is another matter.

Now, to begin, you will be evaluated on your fitness level, and your abilities based upon your position. As you may have noticed, you have been classified into your respective positions, and will be rightfully divided once we begin evaluations. In the WQL, we pride ourselves with having only the most quality driven staff, and today, we have special guests Aiden Lynch, of the Irish National Team, Viktor Krum, of the Bulgarian…" He noted a few other prominent coaching staff and players alike within the Quidditch community. People I'd only see in _Which Broomstick_'s 'Who-to-know' profiles.I then realized that the man I sort of recognized sitting at the entrance was the Aiden Lynch, the Irish seeker.

"Once all skills and fitness are evaluated, scrimmages will be scheduled, but only invitation will allow you admission. I am sorry to say those without will be thanked for participating, and sent away with a hope to return next year. This will take place after a short dinner break. Throughout we encourage you all to stay hydrated and keep your energy and spirits high.

Now, I'm sure most of you have provided much of your own equipment, which is acceptable to be sure, however, to ensure an even playing field, we have provided you with state of the art brooms. The Russian Quidditch equipment company, _Volt_, will be the featured suppliers of next year's Quidditch World Cup, and have graciously agreed to give you a first-hand try at their highlighted product, the _Volt Charger._"

Sounds of approval rang across the pitch, at the recognition of the company. It had had a few features in the _Daily_ _Prophet_ and _Which Broomstick's_ "Up and Coming" sections. I was pretty impressed, since my broom was errantly bought in Diagon Alley, if I recall. This company was innovative to say the least, and whose broom was probably ten times more expensive than my own.

A man, short, maybe my height, was standing on a pedestal in our midst, prepared for a speech, "First, we're going to be evaluating the beaters, so please, feel free to take a seat, you're all welcome to watch. At this time, we must ask the beaters to approach the stations your right to exchange your brooms." He definitely had a beater's build, and a commanding aura to go with it.

I looked up, in search of the twins, so we could sit together, and they were up, a dozen or so rows beneath the top box. Ginny and me flew up to sit with them, eager for the commencement. I was prepared for a long night.

"Nervous?" Fred asked me. We were seated two rows above Ginny and George, who were playfully arguing.

All I could do was give him a pointed look, since I wasn't sure if I wanted to answer that question.

He put him arm lazily around my shoulder, and pulled me in. "Awe, you'll be _alright_, I've heard how you play." He mussed my hair, and pushed me back into me seat, and dodged my light-hearted swing of a fist.

"Good things, I should hope." I said, though somewhat truthfully.

The beaters had finally started off. The new brooms everyone was so obviously eager to use were placed to the side, so they could begin fitness testing on the ground. Evaluations of balance, strength and standard push-ups and sit-ups were had. I noticed the evaluators on the ground working closely with the beaters were pre-occupied mostly with the strength tests that consisted of grip-tests and added weights to exercises.

This short forty-five minute exam was followed by a five-kilometre run. I noticed that those who had easily conquered strength were definitely lacking in the cardio department.

They quickly moved onto the skills of a beater, such as technique, where they were visibly relieved to be back on their brooms. Quickly, they had moved through the tests. I was more of a watcher, and would purse my lips at what was to come. Fred was the one who had me smiling with his witty comments on the physicality and brutality, or other nonsense, of these higher-levelled players.

"Not jealous are we?" I asked. The beaters had just been sent back into the dressing rooms, and I was worried that the chasers would be called next.

He shrugged, "Not in the slightest. I had a good run as a beater, and its something I can laugh about."

"That's right, you and George were the team beaters." I said softly, mostly just to remind myself. He seemed to go back to his banter, and I let him since I had other things to worry about, but kept trained onto the announcer who had confirmed my fears by calling out for the chasers. I wasn't surprised when all Ginny did was glance back nervously before continuing, not uttering a word.

I watched as Ginny kept up nicely, maybe even better than I expected in the fitness and flying. She picked up on the agility drills better than I had hoped, which maybe put her in the top half of the large group of chasers. She seemed to have more trouble smoothly controlling the broom, much like everyone else. It looked jerky, something that was wicked fast, but you'd have to be pretty sure of your actions on a thing like that. If your pass didn't make it because it was late to your fellow chaser, they could easily fly by it, and make the two of you look foolish. She made no mistakes that I could point out, but at the same time, I could see her retract from doing anything risky, probably out of fear.

I winced when they released the bludgers, but when one came hurling towards her, Ginny had to arch her back as the bludger flew in between her abdomen and broom handle. She had to get some points for that crafty manoeuvre, I thought, as I silently cheered for her.

Shortly after, they had run through the keepers, with some interesting flexibility tests and sprint drills, then to stop and go drills in the air, which impressed me to no end.

I downed an entire water bottle, and had a small snack, before readying for our fitness testing. The keepers were sent away, and we were called down as the final group. By the time we were called up, four hours had passed from the other groups.

Ginny hadn't returned from the dressing rooms, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was there, recovering. I was glad she had our team on a regimen of exercise, or I would definitely be some shlub. And thanks to her, I had lost about ten pounds, and gained more in muscle, so I was pretty fit.

We started our fitness testing with standard things, and I was sorry to think that all the scrubbing had paid off on top of training. Oh, if only Snape knew how his punishment had been put to work.

With my abs hurting more than ever after being pushed to the limit, we moved onto running, which I did a fair trial at, nothing incredible. I couldn't help but notice Grant in a lot of the exercises, and hoped that the judges took into account my age when they looked at me.

I had the least trouble with the reflexive drills. There was one, where we were timed on the capture of a bouncy ball. It wasn't exactly normal for a ball. We were placed in a clear five by five metre box, and the ball was released, and it bounced all over. We were allowed to touch the ball before we entered; it was oddly grooved, so that it wouldn't bounce straight in any one direction, and I could definitely feel the hum of magic in it, probably charmed to have greater speed. I was glad that I wasn't the first to go, since we were going in chronological order, so I could assess for myself any patterns.

Quicker than I expected, it was my turn, maybe after fifteen minutes. And even then, the longest turn averaged at about 2 minutes. They didn't skimp on finding talent this year. I stepped into the box slowly, and outwardly calm, completely aware than eyes were on me. A muted voice, a trainer, had said he was about to release it, and to be ready for it. I nodded. In a short three seconds, before I could even register it mentally, it was in my hand. As if my hand had shot out of it's own accord. I gulped, trying to recall how it happened. A lucky calculation of where it was going to be. When I exited the box, and an uneasy clapping came across the people who _were_ paying attention. I uneasily scratched my head, and melted back into the other waiting seekers. Up high in the stands, I could hear Fred and George cheering, as they did for Ginny.

We moved on to the flying. The only two tests for flying we had would be a time trial and a paired evaluation, with of course, a nationally ranked snitch. Turns had came and went, quicker than I wanted, and then it was mine.

I noted the forest-green stained handle, and mounted it, ready to kick off at the spark of his wand. This method of picking probably wasn't the most fair, but that was the point. A snitch was going to be unpredictable anywhere. I think they were trying to see who could make the best of it in situations and take advantage. I knew than after my box trial, I would have to live up to it, to prove I wasn't a fluke.

In the midst of my musings, sparks flew, and I had to kick off. It was harder than necessary, and I knew that I could've pushed off with my pinkie toe, and it would've taken me quickly. I looked around for a hint of a glint, and found it by the top box. My broom, just as jerky as I thought it would be, took me fast, and the snitch. It began to go back to the ground, leading me playfully. It then, as we were flying, started to weave in and around my clothes, then dangled in front of me. It suddenly stopped short to my left, and I went for it. The jerkiness of the broom had proved to be somewhat useful, and when I stopped, I turned it with my feet, since I was hurdling at the snitch from the pivot. It was in my hand, angrily fluttering. I knew it wasn't the fastest time, but I was hoping they would appreciate the trickiness.

Then, almost unfairly, I was pitted against my newly made friend, Grant.

"You again," I muttered.

"Yes, it's good to see you too." He grinned with nice white teeth, and readied to mount. I readied too, and tried to not let his size get to me. Normally, my size was a good size for a seeker, maybe I was a little tall for Hogwarts, but here I would be good. But seeing him, I just knew he would be a pain in the neck.

I can't say it was all too eventful. The snitch had taken simple yet sharp paths, seemingly recognizing my annoyance. Grant had used his physicality to his advantage, though he recognized my skill. Its too bad that there weren't such a thing as an interference call, since he, no matter where we followed the snitch, kept himself between me and it. I had tried my very best tricks.

I flew beside him, finally gaining a shoulder on him when he had thought I was on his other side, and he tried once again to put himself in between the snitch and me. The snitch was closer now, in the range of my fingers. I reached with my inside arm. When I knew I almost had it, I smirked back at Grant. Then, he did the oddest thing. He tickled my underarm. I had a weird spasm, and faltered. He sped up in my confused state and took the snitch. Maybe some weird rule prevented him from winning the trial. I still flew beside him to the ground, now fully angered.

He dismounted, and returned the snitch to the convenor, and turned to me, with his hand posed for a high-five.

"You were awesome!" He cried, and I reluctantly raised my arm. I completely fell for that boyish charm he seemed to possess. Innocence that I suspect he didn't know he had. Of course he would do something as silly as tickle me. But honestly? Our hands slapped, and I had to shake my hand in pain when he wasn't looking. He was obviously taken with me, since he didn't mind my mild annoyance.

"You too. I almost had it you know." I had to add in that last comment.

"Well, if you weren't so cocky, maybe." I inwardly reprimanded myself. It was a bit vain to look back to say '_I showed you'_. "Oh, cheer up Heidi. It was just a bit of fun!" He exclaimed, and pulled me in for a friendly teddy-bear hug, completely throwing me off.

I could feel the muscle beneath my eye twitch at the comment and close contact. "Yeah, I guess."

They sent us all back into the dressing rooms and a short dinner break, but not before changing the colour of our robes. Mine was a hideously yellow with seeker printed on the back. I noticed that among some players, their colours were changed to black spotless robe, an indication of a declination. They were excused, though some stayed to watch; I would too if it were me who was cut.

I looked across the pitch. Ten or so teams were created. I could see Grant in the distance with white robes on. I good-naturedly wondered how hard I would have to hit him into the ground to stain it green.

"We encourage you all to become acquainted with your predetermined teams in the meantime, but please enjoy the food provided in the main hall, just a short walk down the corridor." Said the same man on the pedestal from before.

The half-hour break was spent in silence. It was already so late, and the pitch had been illuminated a while ago.

When the games began, they were unimaginably tough. I had really adept chasers, and okay keeper, and beaters, but we mostly racked up points. Our team had agreed for me to just keep the other seekers away from getting close to the snitch. Other than that we did fairly. The only games I did not get the snitch were against Grant and a man from Brazil, who was particularly tricky with his fakes and cuts. The games were more a show of talent meshing together, but I could tell they were going to count. Overall, I noticed Ginny's team in fourth, with 500 points, relatively high for a school game, but probably average for this level. My team was in second, squeezing by some orange team with 740 points, with the Brazilian seeker, and a brilliant keeper. Finally, to short surprise, Grant and his team were first with 790 points.

I was just glad it was over. The small tournament, where each team played each other once, was tiring; the most Quidditch I'd ever played. My arms were sore from clenching the broom so hard, and don't start me on the state of my back. Ginny disappeared for the moment, after I had congratulated her, and I was busy looking around for her.

"If you're gonna stick around, Ireland's coach is going to be teaching some player workshops tomorrow." Grant's now familiar voice said, while he tapped my shoulder.

"Really?" I asked excitedly, towelling off with the front of my robes. He didn't seem to mind, which I enjoyed. Seamus was usually poking fun at me for a little sweat during practices.

"Yeah, he's supposed to be teaching us how to properly prepare and manoeuvre for a bludger hit."

"That's sounds fun, I'd love to!" In the distance I could see Ginny talking to someone in a suit, her forehead knitted in frustration. I wondered briefly what they were talking about, but was stricken with the memory of needing to get back to school. "You know what, I can't." I said dejectedly. "But maybe I'll see you soon… come summer when the training camps start up." I didn't mention my nervousness at the possibility that I could have bombed the try-out with him casting a shadow over me. My chasers did most of the work in our games, earning us that second spot.

He gave a hopeful look tough, and pulled me in for a hug and pat on the back, almost crushing me in the process, and left waving. I stayed to wait for Ginny, who was still talking to the man, a convener, and another who had joined in. It was one of the chasers of Ireland's team who seemed pissed at the man in the suit. I walked around them, to get a better glimpse at Ginny's face, and I could see what was a minute away from becoming a bleary mess. They seemed to break off the conversation, with a couple handshakes, and I saw Ginny give a shiver as she walked away, and I ran to her side to hold her before she could cry.

"It's okay girl. What'd they say?" I whispered to her.

"They liked the way I played, they figured I'd do great at the regional level." I felt my heart twang for her as she wracked with small girlish sobs. "But they said they couldn't support a player whose name was under compromise at the national level." My mind shot to Ron, who was an Undesirable. And his friend, Undesirable Number One.

-**Sage94**


	23. Chapter 23: Return

21/01/2012

Chapter 23

I tried to make this better for her. "Well, that's not so bad, Gin. Loads of people have made it to nationals up through the ranks. And the pay is decent, there's still publicity, and any team in England would be glad to have you." She didn't seem convinced in the slightest, and I had to admit, my arguments only sounded piteous at this point.

But the more I thought about it, the more it angered me; plenty of scandalous players had set foot into the pitch, containing more than just a shared name. Murderous, traitorous. Had Voldemort's influence reached even further these past years?

And moreover, if they were so _bothered_ with her, then why had they permitted her to be apart of the scrimmages? The only conclusion I could draw was the pure want to see her fail. Yes, yes, surely his reign reached this far. Ensuring every door was closed to his enemies. Perhaps even the initial invitation itself was only sent as some sick joke. I was only glad that my grandmother was so far down the list, that I had gone unnoticed. Maybe it hadn't. Maybe they just wanted to get to Ginny alone, since she was closer to Potter than I ever was.

"_Portus,_" George muttered to the ground. He had found a reasonably inconspicuous flat stone, and we were preparing to travel by portkey. Ginny had long since stopped crying, probably when reached the dressing room. And I could see she was holding back because her brothers were completely dim-witted when it came to feelings. They're, after all, humorous by nature. She would likely wait until they left and we were back in school. Perhaps not even then. Generally she kept to herself when she was pissed, preferring to torture you with her silence, or taking it out on a Slytherin. With coaxing, I'd imagine I could get her to talk to me.

After the spinning faded, we wound up in a forest similar to those surrounding Hogwarts and the highlands.

"George, where exactly are we?" I asked, kicking up the dirt a little to cover our portkey. The flat stone had looked out of place here.

He started, "We're five minutes outside of Hogwarts—"

"On the far side away from Hogsmeade." Fred finished.

"Oh." I said since Ginny wasn't speaking, merely standing behind us, keeping up for our sake.

"Well how do we get in?"

"We have to keep walking to the lake. There, a barrier will be laid, but a few notches below the surface of the lake. Then, you're home free."

"Where did the holes come from?"

"We think it must have something to do with the low maintenance. I mean, it pretty much does its job if no muggles have gotten in, and the only thing going in and out is us harmless students."

"Completely harmless." George assured.

Until the subject of getting past the teachers should arise.

"Teacher's typically only do one round each floor, and they have to cover several."

"So, how long does that take?" I asked.

"We calculated that once every ten minutes they would come back to the same floor. Snape was actually pretty efficient, and cut that down to eight. Didn't take us until the fourth year to get around him. And we're lucky that Peeves won't really hang around the Fat Lady at this hour. He might be bothering the library."

A silence rung out when Ginny and me pondered their idea to get in. She wasn't going to ask, so I spoke "How _exactly_ did you find this out?"

"That is a long story that I am completely willing to tell you—once you've graduated." George said, patting my shoulder. Right, because these boys were the epitome of maturity. They may have the wisdom down pat, but much to learn about… non-humorous subjects.

"Now it's a long swim, but keep to the middle, as not many of the merpeople care for the surface, and cling to the outskirts and bottom. Especially at this hour."

We finally came up to a bank that was about six feet taller than the water level. I was a fair swimmer, but nothing special. I gave Fred a look for the height of the jump, but I took off my heavier clothes so I wouldn't sink, and placed a warming charm over myself, anyways. I put my clothes into my pack, and sealed it, and slinging it back over my shoulder. I waited, as Ginny was slower to get ready. Especially since I figured she would have a better idea of what we were supposed to be doing. She had the experience with these two. My warming charm had already begun to melt the snow, and water pooled around my feet.

Finally, in nothing but shorts and a shirt, we readied to launch ourselves off.

"Once you get in, the boathouse has a run down portrait of a fisherman, in the abandoned room. He leads up to the Gryffindor tower.

"His password is _Tuna Fish Salad_."

"No ancient stemming?" I asked incredulously. What a terrible password.

"It was only made back in the forties. Painted by some kid in his fourth year. Merlin, bless his soul for his ingenuity."

I half-nodded, since it was a young kid who had made it, and it should have been expected, since it was hard enough getting in and out of the castle in the first place. "So how close will it get us?" I asked seriously, taking steps back for a running jump.

"Two portraits down from the Fat Lady, and behind a bookshelf, so you should have enough cover."

I ran off, glancing over my shoulder to Ginny, barely having enough time to feel the butterflies consume me, and hit the water. The initial shock of cold was felt, but was quickly replaced by my normal body temperature. I felt the splash of Ginny beside me. I swam towards where I assumed the force field would be, and felt my foot touch something, and vibrations reverberated through my leg. I reached out with my hands, and my fingers touched a liquid humming barrier that lit a pale orange where I made contact with it, no sign of giving out above the water.

"To the right!" Fred shouted.

I followed instruction, and felt along the barrier and then the break, which was a gap in the hum of the barrier. I quickly dove under, and resurfaced on the other side. I turned around and beckoned Ginny over. I waved a goodbye to the twins, and Ginny and I finally swam back to the shore.

It was a rather uneventful swim to the docks, if not even more tiring than after the night's showcase, and completely all for naught in Ginny's case. She got to the shore first though, and dried herself off, and waited patiently for me. If I were she, I'd be a mess, and I was already exhausted anyways.

"You're lucky you didn't disturb anything." Ginny said, winking at me. We rose from the water, and up onto the docks, myself barely making it up, since my arms were weak. Ginny always seemed a little stronger with her upper body.

"What?" I asked.

"Well, we'd be lucky if Hagrid didn't come down from the other side of the school."

"I wasn't _that_ loud."

"Right." She smirked momentarily, but I suspected she was too distracted to keep making fun of me, so it fell from her face.

We dried ourselves off and then approached a small portrait, matching the twins' description, definitely small enough to fit a crawling fourth year, so we had to crouch even further, once we had said the silly password. The fisherman had sniggered at us, but thanked us for being the first to use him in a while. He was crudely painted, not as skilled as the portraits inside the school, but I was thankful nonetheless.

The path wound on, and soon we rose from another portrait of a fisherman, higher quality than the fisherman in the boathouse. I peaked around it, and the coast was clear, I had only caught a glimpse of a cloak of a supervisor drifting around the corner. Which meant that he probably wouldn't be back to make him rounds until minutes later. We had time. The fisherman had been startled though, and he complained slightly, grumbling about wanting to tattle, but he shut his eyes very soon after we shushed him.

We entered the dormitory, exhausted, and I felt a surge of pride for us getting inside the barriers, let alone the Gryffindor Common Room.

Ginny wished me well, but headed up to sleep, while I sat at the couches in front of the fire.

I leaned back, excited for sleep, yet staring lazily into the flames. Then, suddenly, my vision flickered. I thought maybe it could have been a passing moment for wanting sleep, but my mind didn't fog.

I realized it might be from that curse, and wasn't sure how to go about anything. Would I trigger it if I ran down to the hospital wing? I sat there though, for a long time, waiting for it to flare up again, but I think it was just random and maybe I was exhausted. Nothing happened, and so I made my way slowly up to my bed, careful to watch every detail of where I was going for once so that if I lost any vision I wouldn't be totally disoriented.

In the morning, I was pleased that school would resume normally, since there was no odd looks driven towards me from the head table at breakfast suspecting that I was gone at all.

But there were a few questions from my peers, asking about me staying overnight in the hospital wing. Mostly I hushed them, but told a select few from the DA about what happened vaguely. No one had to know that in fact a Slytherin named Clive had saved me, only that a few Slytherins had caused it.

I noticed a few groups from the other tables turn to look at me to see what the cause was, but I wasn't really a large topic of discussion outside my friends, and they looked away soon enough. I think I wasn't that much for gossip anyways. I'd have to ask Ginny about that sort of thing later. Maybe I was laughable for cleaning the Slytherin dungeons, but I wasn't a prominent figure like Neville in the DA.

Anxiously, I glanced over at the Slytherin table, and dropped my head quickly, when I noticed Clive looking at me, maybe with curiosity. Well, if I had saved someone, maybe I'd like to see how he or she is doing.

In my haste to busy myself, I started to choke on the toast I was eating, and rushed to wash it down with the nearest drink. I coughed even more, since I'd never ever really acquired a taste for pumpkin juice.

I saw Seamus down the table blink at me, and I had to wipe juice off my mouth.

Clive's curiosity had turned to a little tug at the corner of his lips; his ego had probably inflated from watching me embarrass myself thanks to him.

I could only weakly smile but then I lowered my head, careful not to look back to the Slytherin table again.

Ginny was sitting with her sixth year friends, but would occasionally look over at me mischievously, which I would return. Her smile would leave her eyes though, and I dropped it, the both of us remembering the Quidditch trials. Still though, to say that we managed to get there was a victory. And I knew that Ginny was good enough.

The Great Hall started to clear out for the first class on Friday, and I rose to leave. I didn't seek out my friends that were in this class, for fear that I would run my mouth, and risk letting out the story with other students. I made my way carefully up to Charms, being sure not to let anyone know how sore my muscles were from Quidditch.

I cursed, recalling that this is the class I have with Clive, and he could be anywhere from sorry to smug. As much as I would prefer a nice Clive, having him be sorry and piteous would be scarier than expecting me to be grateful.

But obviously Merlin almighty was pitted against me, so since Flitwick was not picky about our seating arrangements naturally Clive seized this as some deranged opportunity to talk to me, and pushed aside all of his things for me the moment I walked in.

"Hello again." He said nicely.

"Hi." I said cautiously.

"Feeling better?"

"All right I guess." I gazed around but found no one near enough to distract me, just more Slytherins.

We began the lesson moments after I whispered my words, for which I was appreciative. We started discussing the upcoming essay, which forced me to pay attention to instructions, since I would be hopeless trying to remember these things finishing the assignment the night before.

Every now and then I'd catch him pretending to be taking notes,

Somehow he was able to hold my gaze long enough to actually speak to me.

I figured that I'd make him feel less awkward by speaking first.

"So, er, how are you faring in this class?" I said. It sounded contrived, but the look in his eyes told me he was just glad I spoke to him at all.

"Very well, but I can't think of a conclusion for my independent study."

I blinked.

"You know, the thing that is due before March."

I sunk into my seat slowly after realizing I hadn't touched that assignment, and I remember it was supposed to be 3 feet of parchment. Lovely. "Of course."

He chuckled at me, most of my teachers knew that I didn't have a knack for completing things in a timely manner, and likewise my friends and peers.

"Did they catch whoever did it?" He asked hopefully.

"Obviously not." Why do you care, I wanted to ask. I softened though, since he did save the day. "Well I don't expect them to. You know as well as I do that it was probably a Slytherin." He didn't seem to mind that jab so I added, "I don't suppose you saw them…"

"They kept their faces hidden but they looked older."

I decided it didn't matter how I acted towards him, he tolerated anything I'd said to him. Or gotten over things quickly.

"Is it alright if I ask about the effects?"

"I suppose so."

"… So?" He asked.

"You can ask."

"Right. Well, how did the curse affect you?"

"I couldn't see for a while. I'm not sure what hurt worse. My head or my bruises." I left out some broken things, but he seemed impressed enough by my injuries, since he was there. I could see in his eyes that he was about to go somewhere with this conversation, and try to convey his sympathies, but it made me feel uncomfortable just thinking of having a heart to heart with this sometimes revolting person.

"If it will make you feel better, I'll help you find whoever did it."

"You're not going to find them," I found myself saying.

"Why is that?"

"In case you haven't noticed, no one's doing anything to prevent that kind of problem. The headmaster is more concerned with the other three houses stepping out of line."

He knew I was right. Maybe he was trying to impress me more by caring.

"Well, if you really want to help me you can start by telling me the boys' names from years four to seven." I always appreciated being home-schooled, but it did put me at a disadvantage of not having a knowledge base of people here.

He seemed to calculate this in his head. "I think you can rule out fourth years, since most of them are rather small." We both smirked.

"Anyone you know with a good arm and kick?" I added, sort of joking.

He gave a rueful laugh, "Plenty, the trouble will be finding one with the willingness to talk to me."

"Why is that?" I asked, puzzled.

"Well in case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a laughing stock."

'How do you mean?' is what I wanted to say, but instead I opted for a nicer approach: "No you're not."

"Please, Heidi, my father can't protect me forever." He said casually.

"Mr. Thicknesse, kindly remain silent for my lecture, I'm sure whatever conversation you and miss Brand have may wait until we are finished," said professor Flitwick. It was silent as everyone, even the professor, realized that he had asked a Slytherin and a Gryffindor to stop talking, and not something more common, like arguing.

I cleared my throat to break the silence and Flitwick resumed.

While the attention was slowly drifting away, I couldn't help but smile at what Clive had said previously though; but instead of picturing Clive hiding behind his father, I was imagining Malfoy cowering behind his father's robes. But I wondered at the relationships that Slytherins had with each other, particularly the Death Eaters. His father struck me as a coward acting in fear rather than loyalty. Then again, even if I _were_ a loyal Death Eater, I would still be afraid of the Dark Lord. I hoped Clive likely wasn't counted among them as an equal because of the nature of his father's rise to power.

At least Clive _had_ protection.

I backtracked, remembering that this was what I chose. I was old enough. I had known the Order was a hunted society.

"I should like to meet later, perhaps you can tell me names and faces of any leads." I murmured to him, once eyes the classes' had left us.

He nodded and smiled, returning to his note-taking.

I studied him longer, then remembered back to the first class I had with this boy. I had sat next to him. It had been in professor Carrow's class. I had been the one taking notes, while Clive was more confident lazy and had pushed his homework aside. He had even asked me why I dated all of my work. Where had my studiousness gone today? Clive must have sucked it all up from all the talking we've been doing this past year, since he'd just talked about doing his homework earlier.

"What?" He asked, and I jumped, forgetting what is was like to be stared at, you just feel it, and he probably felt that right now.

"Nothing. I just don't think you're _that_ embarrassing of a Slytherin."

I know he would've smacked me if he could, but he smiled and once again returned to his work.


End file.
